The development of clean energy storage technologies has been a global concern to address the ever-increasing energy demand and depletion of non-renewable energy sources. Supercapacitors (SCs) emerged as eco-friendly solutions for energy storage en route to a low-carbon future, with a roaring market of up to over $11 billion until 2023. With the global proliferation of wearable electronics new market opportunities arised for SCs, on the production of the next-generation of energy storage clothing. The current challenge relies on the design of SCs integrated in textiles or produced as fabrics. Nanosized materials are potential ground pillars for the design of high-performance lightweight energy storage textiles with improved comfort. In particular, hybrid nanomaterials based on conductive carbon and metal oxide nanoparticles (MO NPs) are a promising solution to fabricate cost-effective and scalable textile electrodes for the production of efficient SC textiles.

SmarText4EStore aims to produce a new generation of hybrid supercapacitor textiles featuring enhanced performance, flexibility, lightness, safety and long lifetime. Several strategies will be pursued starting from textile electrodes design and use of eco-friendly electrolytes until engineered design of new SC textile configurations and scalable cost-effective fabrication processes.

This project combines the expertise of 4 institutions, REQUIMTE - LAQV, IFIMUP, LSRE-LCM and CITEVE, with complementary knowledge that covers all the required domains.

SmarText4EStore aims to respond to the Priority Actions towards 2050 of H2020 and Energy Agencies:

- Reduce material/device cost and increase energy density without sacrificing power and life;

- Reduce component and finished electrode material manufacturing costs;

- Improve SCs performance and their manufacturing techniques;

- Accelerate R&D efforts on optimizing the integration of energy storage technologies in the energy system.

This project aims on addressing the energy/power density demands of wearable electronic devices fostering innovation towards the next-generation of smart textiles for energy storage, putting EU in the vanguard of Innovation in Energy Storage Technologies.

Scientific Areas: Materials Engineering, Nanotechnology

Keywords: Hybrid Supercapacitors Textiles, Hybrid Carbon-Metal Oxide Nanomaterials; Energy Storage; Eco-Sustainable Scalable Manufacturing Technologies