Freestanding carbon-based hybrid anodes for flexible supercapacitors: Part I—An inclusive outlook on current collectors and configurations

Flexible supercapacitors with hybrid anodes have gained significant attention in energy storage research, owing to their remarkable specific capacitance, outstanding power and energy densities, rapid charging-to-discharging rates, and superior flexibility. However, bare carbonaceous anodes exhibit limited capacitive performance, resulting in low energy density. To address this issue, recent efforts focus on hybridizing carbonaceous anodes with metal-based active materials to enhance their electrochemical performance. This part of review comprehensively outlines the available options of carbonaceous materials used as substrates for constructing hybrid free-standing flexible anodes. Various persuasive approaches are discussed, highlighting their effectiveness in enhancing the electrochemical performance of carbonaceous substrates. In addition, this piece of work provides an insight into the possible configurations of such devices for real-life applications.