Graphene-based flexible and wearable supercapacitors have been produced by wet
spinning, in which organic solvent coagulating bath was prerequisite and spacers
were usually incorporated to improve the electrochemical property but
sacrificing the mechanical property. In this work, a nonorganic solvent spinning
technology named as interfacial polyelectrolyte complexation (IPC), which was
based on the spontaneous self-assembly of two oppositely charged polyelectrolyte
solutions/suspensions to form continuous fibers on drawing in their interfaces,
was proposed to fabricate graphene fiber–shaped electrodes for
supercapacitors. Due to the excellent mechanical performance and hydrophilicity,
cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) were added to serve as an efficient reinforcing
agent and spacer of graphene fiber electrodes. Consequently, the mechanical
performance and specific capacitance of the fibers were improved but electrical
conductivity was declined. Taking overall consideration, CNF/rGO60 fiber
electrode possessed a superior integrated performance with a capacitance of
182.6 F/g, tensile strength of 480 MPa, and electrical conductivity of 5538.7
S/m. The IPC spinning provided an environmentally friendly strategy for the
fabrication of fiber-shaped functional devices.