Scalable fabrication of vanadium carbide/graphene electrodes for high-energy and flexible microsupercapacitors

In-plane microsupercapacitors (MSCs) hold great promise for microscale power source, due to the extremely high power density and ultra-long cycling life. However, the scalable fabrication of flexible MSCs with high energy density remains a major challenge. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of vanadium carbide/reduced graphene oxide (V8C7/rGO) MSCs via laser scribing on ammonium meta-vanadate/graphene oxide (NH4VO3/GO) films, prepared by efficient continuous centrifugal casting method. More than 20 MSCs can be produced on a flexible substrate in 30 min, showing the potential for scalable fabrication. The laser-induced V8C7/rGO shows highly porous microstructure, where vanadium carbide nanoparticles are in-situ synthesized and uniformly decorated on graphene nanosheets. The well-defined architecture endows V8C7/rGO MSCs with excellent electrochemical performance. The areal capacitance of these devices can be as high as 49.5 mF cm(-2), 11 times higher than that of rGO MSCs. The volumetric energy density and power density can be up to 3.4 mWh cm(-3) and 401 mW cm(-3), respectively, competitive with the commercially available energy storage devices and most reported MSCs. In addition, V8C7/rGO MSCs show excellent flexibility and integrability, as well as long cycling life, promising for practical applications. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

In this study, vanadium carbide/reduced graphene oxide (V8C7/rGO) microsupercapacitors (MSCs) were successfully fabricated via laser scribing on ammonium meta-vanadate/graphene oxide (NH4VO3/GO) films, showing excellent electrochemical performance and scalable manufacturing potential.