▎ 摘　　要

NOVELTY - Process for making a flexible electrode, comprises (a) preparing a slurry of carbon sources and a binder in a solvent, (b) coating a foil with the slurry of step (a) to form a slurry coated foil 1, (c) drying the slurry coated foil of step (b) followed by pressing to obtain graphite film on foil 1, (d) preparing a mixture of a prepolymer and a silicone resin solution as silicone elastomer, (e) coating the mixture of step (d) on the surface of the graphite film on foil 1 followed by curing to form a coated polymer graphite film of foil 2, (f) peeling off the coated polymer-graphite film of foil 2 to obtain a graphite coating on the polymer layer as free-standing flexible graphite substrate (FGS), and (g) immersing FSG into a electrolyte solution and applying potential between the electrodes, where the FSG is used as anode and a metal foil is used as counter electrode to obtain exfoliated graphite sheets followed by rinsing the exfoliated FGS to obtain the flexible electrode. USE - The process is used for making a flexible electrode which is used in a flexible supercapacitor, and for fabrication of the flexible supercapacitor (all claimed). The electrode is used in a flexible energy storage device. ADVANTAGE - The process for making an electrode performs exfoliating graphite into large area interconnected graphene sheets anchored on a flexible graphite substrate, or performs electrochemical exfoliation of graphite film supported on a flexible elastomeric substrate, where the electrode is flexible. The electrode fabrication technique uses graphite film supported on elastomer. In the process, the graphite is electrochemically exfoliated into graphene sheets with very large in lateral size (more than 50 mu m) with few atomic layer thicknesses, and these graphene sheets are anchored on flexible substrate. In the process, the C-axis exfoliated graphite into graphene sheets are interconnected along the substrate surface providing excellent electrolyte ionic conductivity. The obtained electrode offers an alternative, which is concurrently cheaper to make it cost-effective. The process possibly performs incorporation of additional binder-free pseudocapacitive metal oxides and conducting polymers with the exfoliated graphite into large graphene sheets, and avoids the use of binders, solvents and heating temperatures for active electrode. In the process, after the flexible graphite substrate is electrochemically exfoliated, it is then immediately ready for the supercapacitor applications without the active material being coated on any conducting substrate using binder and solvents. DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Process for making a flexible electrode, comprises (a) preparing a slurry of carbon sources and a binder in a solvent, (b) coating a foil with the slurry of step (a) to form a slurry coated foil 1, (c) drying the slurry coated foil of step (b) at 100-150 degrees C for 1-2 hours until the solvent evaporates completely followed by pressing at 25-30 degrees C to obtain graphite film on foil 1, (d) preparing a mixture of a prepolymer and a silicone resin solution as silicone elastomer, (e) coating the mixture of step (d) on the surface of the graphite film on foil 1 of step (c) followed by curing at 50-150 degrees C for 10-20 minutes to form a coated polymer graphite film of foil 2, (f) peeling off the coated polymer-graphite film of foil 2 of step (e) to obtain a graphite coating on the polymer layer as free-standing flexible graphite substrate (FGS), and (g) immersing FSG of step (f) into a electrolyte solution and applying potential between the electrodes, where the FSG is used as anode and a metal foil is used as counter electrode, by using Chronoamperometry method to obtain exfoliated graphite sheets followed by rinsing the exfoliated FGS (E-FGS) with water until the pH of the electrode became neutral to obtain the flexible electrode with large interconnected graphene sheets anchored on the flexible graphite substrate, where lateral size of graphene sheets is ~50-300 mu m. INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are included for the following: (1) a flexible supercapacitor comprising the above-mentioned electrode, and a conducting polymer, where the conducting polymer is chosen from poly(N-phenylglycine) or polyhydroquinone (PHQ); and (2) a process for a fabrication of the flexible supercapacitor, comprising (a1) electropolymerizing the conducting polymer on the above-mentioned electrode followed by dipping into a polymer electrolyte gel followed by drying at 25-30 degrees C to obtain a dried electrode, and (b) wetting the electrode of step (a1) with the polymer electrolyte gel and contacting face to face to obtain the flexible supercapacitor.