Laser induced flexible micro-supercapacitor for pressure sensing

Abstract

Portable, wearable electronic devices have spurred the rapid development of flexible and stretchable energy harvesting/storage devices with high energy density, superior mechanical stability, and long cycle life. Micro-supercapacitor (MSC) has attracted wide interest due to their advantages of high power density, rapid charge and discharge, and long cycle life. Fabrication of flexible supercapacitors based on laser induced graphene (LIG) has shown strong advantages and potential for flexible sensor power supply. The purpose of this paper is to propose and develop a laser induced flexible micro-supercapacitor (FMSC) for pressure sensors. FMSC is manufactured from a planar forked finger electrode made of graphene induced by CO2 laser radiation commercial Polyimide (PI) film and PVA polymer gel electrolyte. The FMSCs prepared by this method exhibit good electrochemical properties and excellent mechanical properties. The microscopic morphology of LIG was investigated using SEM, and the optimal laser-induced power was determined to be 12.5%. In this paper, a novel fork-finger electrode pattern was applied to improve the performance of FMSCs by optimizing the structure of planar interdigital electrodes, and the FMSCs prepared at 12.5% power showed excellent supercapacitance performance at a voltage window of 0.8 V with a specific capacitance of 2.21 mF/cm2. The FMSCs were made by assembling commercial PI films, PVA, and H3PO4 simple materials, which makes it possible to prepare FMSCs at low cost and high efficiency based on laser direct writing technology. FMSCs provide energy to the flexible sensors and continuously collect energy to charge FMSCs through an integrated flexible energy harvester, which makes FMSCs promising for flexible self-powered wireless sensing platforms.

Keywords

• CO2-laser-induced graphene
• Flexible electronics
• Micro-supercapacitor
• Energy storage
• Pressure sensing