Utilization of electroless plating to prepare Cu-coated cotton cloth electrode for flexible Li-ion batteries

Flexible, lightweight and high conductivity substrates are required for the development of next-generation flexible Li-ion batteries (LIBs). In addition, the interfacial strength between the active material and flexible substrate should be optimized for high-performance LIBs. Herein, cotton cloth (CC) is employed as a flexible substrate, and electroless plating is utilized to deposit a layer of Cu nanoparticles, which enhances the conductivity of CC and acts as a precursor for the active material, i.e., CuO. The results reveal that the in situ etching and subsequent heat treatment converted Cu film into CuO nanowires on CC substrate. Moreover, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are introduced to enhance the connectivity of CuO nanowires. Consequently, the CuO/CNT/CC electrode rendered a high areal capacity of > 700 μAh·cm−2 after 100 charge/discharge cycles as well as excellent rate capability. The current work presents a novel route to develop desirable substrates for next-generation flexible Li-ion batteries.