ABSTRACT Despite their high power density, microsupercapacitors (MSCs) are impractical for many energy storage applications due to their limited energy density. Their energy density can be increased by shaping the electrodes into 3D structures with high specific surface area (SSA). Direct printing of nanoporous 3D electrodes is a promising approach for achieving high SSA. However, conventional nanoscale 3D printing is too slow due to point‐by‐point processing. Here, we have employed the projection two‐photon lithography technique to fabricate nanoporous 3D electrodes via a rapid layer‐by‐layer mechanism. The 3D MSC electrodes are engineered as an array of nanoporous polymeric micropillars that are printed with customizable spacing and count over a 0.25 cm2area. After printing, these micropillars are conformally coated with titanium nitride to form conductive 3D electrodes, which exhibit a specific capacitance of 361 μF/cm2. This is two orders of magnitude higher than the capacitance of the flat surface and exceeds the capacitance of both traditional bare electrodes, such as single‐wall carbon nanotubes (< 100 μF/cm2), and electrodes produced by photo‐polymerization 3D printing (˜200 μF/cm2). As our work demonstrates that high energy density 3D electrodes can be rapidly fabricated, it significantly expands the utility of MSCs as miniaturized energy storage devices.
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3D printing-based cellular microelectrodes for high-performance asymmetric quasi-solid-state micro-pseudocapacitors
Micro-supercapacitor is a member of the miniaturized energy storage device family, which offers great advantages on power density and life span. However, the limited device capacitance and narrow voltage window limit its energy density, hindering its application. In the present work, a novel micro-pseudocapacitor (MPC) constructed via the facile extrusion-based 3D printing technique has been demonstrated to deliver efficient charge storage with high device capacitance and moderate voltage window. Such an asymmetric MPC is constructed with 3D-printing-enabled asymmetric interdigitated cellular microelectrodes; in which, one is Ni–Co–O nanosheets grown on macroporous 3D reduced GO (3DG) microelectrode and the other is MnO 2 nanosheets grown on 3DG. Such an MPC offers facilitated fast electron transport, ionic diffusion, large number of active sites and desired porosity for electrolyte penetration. The asymmetric MPC shows a high specific capacity of 500 mC cm −2 , an energy density of 90 μW h cm −2 and a voltage window of 1.3 V. A device cycling stability with 10 000 charge and discharge cycles is also achieved for the as-fabricated asymmetric MPCs. These encouraging results may open a new avenue to design and fabricate state-of-the-art miniaturized electrochemical energy storage devices with customized geometries.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1803256
- PAR ID:
- 10185794
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Materials Chemistry A
- Volume:
- 8
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 2050-7488
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1749 to 1756
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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