Ultrahigh areal number density solid-state on-chip microsupercapacitors via electrohydrodynamic jet printing.

Lee, Kwon-Hyung; Lee, Seong-Sun; Ahn, David B; Lee, Jaehyun; Byun, Doyoung; Lee, Sang-Young · Sci Adv · 2020

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Microsupercapacitors (MSCs) have garnered considerable attention as a promising power source for microelectronics and miniaturized portable/wearable devices. However, their practical application has been hindered by the manufacturing complexity and dimensional limits. Here, we develop a new class of ultrahigh areal number density solid-state MSCs (UHD SS-MSCs) on a chip via electrohydrodynamic (EHD) jet printing. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first study to exploit EHD jet printing in the MSCs. The activated carbon-based electrode inks are EHD jet-printed, creating interdigitated electrodes with fine feature sizes. Subsequently, a drying-free, ultraviolet-cured solid-state gel electrolyte is introduced to ensure electrochemical isolation between the SS-MSCs, enabling dense SS-MSC integration with on-demand (in-series/in-parallel) cell connection on a chip. The resulting on-chip UHD SS-MSCs exhibit exceptional areal number density [36 unit cells integrated on a chip (area = 8.0 mm × 8.2 mm), 54.9 cells cm<sup>-2</sup>] and areal operating voltage (65.9 V cm<sup>-2</sup>).