Elaboration of a microstructured inkjet-printed carbon electrochemical capacitor

Carbon-based micro-supercapacitors dedicated to energy storage in self-powered modules were fabricated with inkjet printing technology on silicon substrate. An ink was first prepared by mixing an activated carbon powder with a PTFE polymer binder in ethylene glycol stabilized with a surfactant then deposited by inkjet on patterned gold current collectors with the substrate heated at 140 degrees C in order to assure a good homogeneity. Electrochemical micro-capacitors with electrodes in an interdigital configuration were fabricated. and characterized using electrochemical techniques in 1 M Et4NBF4 propylene carbonate electrolyte. These micro-devices show an excellent capacitive behavior over a wide potential range of 2.5 V for a cell capacitance of 2.1 mFcm(-2). The newly developed technology will allow the integration of the storage device as close as possible to the MEMS-based energy harvesting device, minimizing power losses through connections. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.