Laser-Assisted Fabrication of Nanostructured Substrate Supported Electrodes for Highly Active Supercapacitors

Mamoon Asghar,Deji Akinwande,Mudassir Iqbal,Farheen Nasir,Asif Mahmood,Zarah Khan,Syedah Afsheen Zahra,Syed Rizwan,Mohammad Ali Mohammad,Momina Ahmed

doi:10.3389/fmats.2020.00179

Abstract

Supercapacitors (SCs) have attracted great attention as renewable energy storage devices due to high power densities and cost effectiveness. In this work, a one-step method is reported to fabricate the Laser scribed SC using laser reduced Polyimide (LRPI) electrodes as a substrate. An Iono-gel polymer electrolyte based on polyvinyl alcohol, potassium hydroxide and 1-Butyl-3-methyl imidazolium Bromide ([Bmim]Br) was utilized because of its wider voltage window, good ionic conductivity and better adhesion with electrode material. The assembled device exhibited an excellent specific capacitance of 2.19 mFcm-2 at a maximum current density of 0.263 mAcm-2. The energy density is measured to be 1.21 µWhcm-2 that is much higher than usual capacitor. Given these electrochemical properties, cost effective one-step method and scalable approach provide a strategy to fabricate lightweight, stretchable and flexible supercapacitors for future microscale energy storage devices i.e. flexible displays, electrical sensors and wearable electronics.

Highlights

Economical, efficient, and clean energy storage technologies are urgently needed to handle the expeditiously exacerbated intermittence of renewable energies into the grid
SCs store electric charge by the formation of an electrical double layer formed at electrode-electrolyte interface under potential gradient, which diffuses quickly upon potential inversion to deliver quick energy and take advantage of a high surface area, Laser-Fabricated Supercapacitors for Energy Storage high power density, low energy density, fast charging rate, and excellent cyclic stability (Winter and Brodd, 2009)
We report a one-step method to fabricate laserassisted reduced Polyimide (LRPI) electrodes where the surface of Polyimide (PI) is partially converted to graphitic carbon by laser irradiation

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Economical, efficient, and clean energy storage technologies are urgently needed to handle the expeditiously exacerbated intermittence of renewable energies into the grid. Since charge storage in electrochemical double layer SCs is a surface-based phenomenon, the surface area of the electrodes, pore size distribution, the electrode/electrolyte interface, and electrical conductivity become very important Their performance is largely affected by poor contact between the electrode and current collector as well as structural degradation (Mahmood et al, 2016). Various binderfree electrode chemistries have been investigated, including a carbon nanotube (CNT) sponge, carbon fiber paper, carbon cloth, etc These materials must be loaded onto the current collector for device fabrication, which again affects the efficient charge transfer from the electrode material to the current collector, resulting in poor capacitive charge storage capability (Mahmood et al, 2015). The dependence of capacitance on various parameters such as the scan rate, size, geometry of electrodes, and laser intensity is reported This one-step costeffective synthesis technique will be vastly significant for the refashioning of flexible high energy density SC devices. Where C is the areal capacitance of LRPI and is measured in mFcm−2, s is the specific area of the electrodes (1 cm in our case), vf and vi are the final and initial voltages (in Volts), and

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT