Printed flexible supercapacitor from conductive ink of graphite nanocomposite blended with Co3O4 to facilitate the fabrication of energy storage device

Abstract

An easy-to-make and potential technique for designing of supercapacitor has been proposed by printing conductive ink from porous Co3O4 and graphite nanocomposite. This method simplifies the process of fabrication of energy storage devices. The ink used in this fabrication was prepared after blending the porous Co3O4 nanoparticle composite with graphite, porous Co3O4 nanosphere was synthesized in situ through a single-step calcination process of the zeolitic imidazolate framework precursor (ZIF-67). To ensure homogenous fabrication, the supercapacitor was prepared by screen-printing technology, which allowed for the even distribution of ink using a standard squeeze spreader. The performance was evaluated by designing two types of supercapacitors: an ultra-flexible symmetric supercapacitor (CG-1) and an asymmetric supercapacitor (ASSC), both of which utilized the solid polymeric electrolyte with a resistance of 4.92 Ω. Our research showed an enhanced specific capacitance of 85 Fg−1 for CG-1 and 137 Fg−1 for ASSC, indicating the high efficiency of these lab-created screen-printed supercapacitor devices. The ASSC supercapacitor exhibited remarkable capacitance retention (%). After 2500 cycles, it retained 96.3 %, and even after 5000 cycles, it retained 85.9 %. The results highlight its exceptional flexibility and durability, with a retention rate ranging from 97.8 % to 99.3 % when subjected to various bending angles. Finally, the current works present the fabrication of supercapacitors using a user-friendly screen-printing technique, where ink was prepared by the optimal recipe of ZIFs and graphite nanocomposite. Our approach involved preparing an ink with an optimized recipe of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) and graphite nanocomposites. It emphasizes the promising prospects of employing metal-organic frameworks, specifically ZIFs, as effective templates for producing porous electrode materials. This breakthrough paves the way for the production of innovative devices and their application in the future of state-of-the-art flexible energy storage.