Floating Catalyst Chemical Vapor Deposition Patterning Nitrogen-Doped Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Shape Tailorable and Flexible Micro-Supercapacitors

Micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) as high-power density energy storage units are designed to meet the booming development of flexible electronics, requiring simple and fast fabrication technology. Herein, a fast and direct solvent-free patterning method is reported to fabricate shape-tailorable and flexible MSCs by floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition (FCCVD). The nitrogen-doped single-walled carbon nanotubes (N-SWCNTs) are directly deposited on a patterned filter by FCCVD with designable patterns and facilely dry-transferred on versatile substrates. The obtained MSCs deliver an excellent areal capacitance of 3.6 mF cm(-2) and volumetric capacitance of 98.6 F cm(-3) at a scan rate of 5 mV s(-1) along with excellent long-term cycle stability over 125 000 circles. Furthermore, the MSCs show good performance uniformity, which can be readily integrated via connection in parallel or series to deliver a stable high voltage (4 V with five serially connected devices) and large capacitance (5.1 mF with five parallel devices) at a scan rate of 100 mV s(-1), enabling powering the light emitting displays. Therefore, this method blazes the trail of directly preparing flexible, shape-customizable, and high-performance MSCs.

Automated summary

A fast and direct solvent-free patterning method is reported to fabricate shape-tailorable and flexible micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) by floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition (FCCVD). The obtained MSCs exhibit excellent areal and volumetric capacitances, along with excellent long-term cycle stability. They also show good performance uniformity and can be easily integrated via connection in parallel or series to deliver a stable high voltage and large capacitance, enabling the power of light emitting displays. Therefore, this method paves the way for directly preparing flexible, shape-customizable, and high-performance MSCs.