Ultrafast Metal‐Free Microsupercapacitor Arrays Directly Store Instantaneous High‐Voltage Electricity from Mechanical Energy Harvesters

Abstract

Abstract Harvesting renewable mechanical energy is envisioned as a promising and sustainable way for power generation. Many recent mechanical energy harvesters are able to produce instantaneous (pulsed) electricity with a high peak voltage of over 100 V. However, directly storing such irregular high‐voltage pulse electricity remains a great challenge. The use of extra power management components can boost storage efficiency but increase system complexity. Here utilizing the conducting polymer PEDOT:PSS, high‐rate metal‐free micro‐supercapacitor (MSC) arrays are successfully fabricated for direct high‐efficiency storage of high‐voltage pulse electricity. Within an area of 2.4 × 3.4 cm2 on various paper substrates, large‐scale MSC arrays (comprising up to 100 cells) can be printed to deliver a working voltage window of 160 V at an ultrahigh scan rate up to 30 V s−1. The ultrahigh rate capability enables the MSC arrays to quickly capture and efficiently store the high‐voltage (≈150 V) pulse electricity produced by a droplet‐based electricity generator at a high efficiency of 62%, significantly higher than that (<2%) of the batteries or capacitors demonstrated in the literature. Moreover, the compact and metal‐free features make these MSC arrays excellent candidates for sustainable high‐performance energy storage in self‐charging power systems.

Keywords

• droplet‐based electricity generators
• full printing
• microsupercapacitor arrays
• on‐paper electronics
• PEDOT:PSS