Substrate-Free and Shapeless Planar Micro-Supercapacitors

Micro-supercapacitors (MSCs), albeit powerful, are unable to broaden their potential applications primarily because they are not as flexible and morphable as electronics. To address this problem, a universal strategy to fabricate substrate-free, ultrathin, shapeless planar-MSCs with high-performance tenability under serious deformation is put forward. These represent a new class of all-inside-one film supercapacitors, achieved by encapsulating two-dimensional interdigital microelectrodes within chemically cross-linked polyvinyl-alcohol-based hydrogel electrolyte containing graphene oxide (GO). GO nanosheets significantly improve ionic conductivity, enhance the capacitance, and boost robustness of hydrogel electrolyte. Consequently, the entire MSC, while being only 37 mu m thick, can be crumpled and its shape can self-adjust through fluid channel ten times smaller than its original size without any damage, demonstrating shapelessness. Using MXene as active material, high single-cell areal capacitance of 40.8 mF cm(-2) is achieved from microelectrodes as thin as 5 mu m. Furthermore, to demonstrate wide applicability of this protocol, screen-printed graphene-based highly integrated MSCs connecting nine cells in series are fabricated to stably output a high voltage of 7.2 V while crumpling them from 0.11 to 0.01 cm(-3), manifesting superior performance uniformity. This protocol allows the coexistence of high performance with incredible flexibility that may greatly diversify MSCs' applications.