3D Printed Stamps for Transfer Printing of Flexible and Wearable Supercapacitors

Abstract

In recent times, there has been an increasing demand for portable, lightweight, and flexible electronic devices. These electronic devices are required in healthcare, robotics, sports, defence, and other applications. Energy storage unit is one of the key requirements of these electronics and solid-state micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) are preferred for flexible and wearable electronics.[1,2] However, conventional methods of manufacturing MSCs are complex, time-consuming, and costly. This work aims to explore an alternative approach to developing MSCs by transferring electronic inks onto paper, textiles, and other flexible substrates using 3D-printed stamps. Different in-plane MSCs with varying finger widths and interspace gaps were fabricated to find the optimum electrochemical properties. The developed devices exhibit excellent electrochemical performance including high power density, high energy density, excellent lifetime, and excellent flexibility under different mechanical deformation conditions (such as bending, rolling, folding, etc.). This approach has a huge potential for fabrication of next-generation electronics for flexible and wearable electronic applications.