3D Printed Supercapacitor Exploiting PEDOT-Based Resin and Polymer Gel Electrolyte

Renewable energy-based technologies and increasing IoT (Internet of Things) objects population necessarily require proper energy storage devices to exist. In the view of customized and portable devices, Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques offer the possibility to fabricate 2D to 3D features for functional applications. Among the different AM techniques extensively explored to produce energy storage devices, direct ink writing is one of the most investigated, despite the poor achievable resolution. Herein, we present the development and characterization of an innovative resin which can be employed in a micrometric precision stereolithography (SL) 3D printing process for the fabrication of a supercapacitor (SC). Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), a conductive polymer, was mixed with poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA), to get a printable and UV curable conductive composite material. The 3D printed electrodes were electrically and electrochemically investigated in an interdigitated device architecture. The electrical conductivity of the resin falls within the range of conductive polymers with 200 mS/cm and the 0.68 & mu;Wh/cm(2) printed device energy density falls within the literature range.

Automated summary

Renewable energy technologies and IoT devices require proper energy storage devices, and additive manufacturing techniques offer the possibility to fabricate functional features. Among these techniques, direct ink writing is widely investigated for producing energy storage devices. This study presents the development and characterization of a resin for micro precision stereolithography 3D printing of a supercapacitor. The printed electrodes were electrically and electrochemically investigated in an interdigitated device architecture, showing good electrical conductivity and energy density within the literature range.