Transparent and Multi‐Foldable Nanocellulose Paper Microsupercapacitors

Abstract

Abstract Despite the ever‐increasing demand for transparent power sources in wireless optoelectronics, most of them have still relied on synthetic chemicals, thus limiting their versatile applications. Here, a class of transparent nanocellulose paper microsupercapacitors (TNP‐MSCs) as a beyond‐synthetic‐material strategy is demonstrated. Onto semi‐interpenetrating polymer network‐structured, thiol‐modified transparent nanocellulose paper, a thin layer of silver nanowire and a conducting polymer (chosen as a pseudocapacitive electrode material) are consecutively introduced through microscale‐patterned masks (which are fabricated by electrohydrodynamic jet printing) to produce a transparent conductive electrode (TNP‐TCE) with planar interdigitated structure. This TNP‐TCE, in combination with solid‐state gel electrolytes, enables on‐demand (in‐series/in‐parallel) cell configurations in a single body of TNP‐MSC. Driven by this structural uniqueness and scalable microfabrication, the TNP‐MSC exhibits improvements in optical transparency (T = 85%), areal capacitance (0.24 mF cm−2), controllable voltage (7.2 V per cell), and mechanical flexibility (origami airplane), which exceed those of previously reported transparent MSCs based on synthetic chemicals.

Keywords

• biopolymer
• foldable electronics
• nanocellulose
• supercapacitors
• transparent power source