No abstract

No abstract

This paper presents a novel process and manufacturing system for the fabrication of Electric Double-Layer Capacitors (EDLCs) as energy storage devices. It shows an approach for printing multilayer EDLC components using 3D printing technology. A dual nozzle deposition system was used based on a fused deposition modelling (FDM) process. This process allows layers of activated carbon (AC) slurry, gel electrolyte and composite solid filaments to be printed with high precision. This paper describes the detailed process of deposition of the AC and gel electrolyte using the dual nozzle system. It describes the energy storage performance of the printed supercapacitors in relation to differences in thickness in the AC printed layers. A supercapacitor based on printed AC and composite materials displays a specific capacitance of 38.5 mF g -1 when measured at a potential rate change of 20 mV s -1 and a current density of 0.136 A g -1 .

No abstract

carbon-based materials have long been used as electrodes for EDLCs. Activated carbon (AC) is one of the most important commercial carbon materials being used as electrodes of EDLCs [2]. It is useful because of its high specific surface area, low-cost, an excellent synergy effect with additive materials and is easy to process. Recently, some attempts have been made to fabricate multiple material layers of the EDLC in one rapid and accurate deposition process [3]. Several fabrication processes have been used to fabricate flexible EDLCs and micro supercapacitors and reported in the literature including photolithography and an electrochemical deposition, a micro extrusion, coating, roll-to-roll printing, etc [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Compared to the method described here, other 3D printing methods are usually costly or not able to process all the materials necessary for making EDLCs, such as 3D selective laser melting machine [21]. 3D printing based on paste extrusion has been adopted for this study because it allows EDLCs to be fabricated in one single process including package sealing with various types of materials. In addition, EDLCs have been studied and manufactured by 3D direct-ink writing process, but the viscosity of the AC and silicone materials makes them unsuitable for this approach [22]. An important requirement of an EDLC nowadays is its ability to be highly flexible to meet the requirement for numerous applications. It is clear that some of these processes add little to the capacitance behaviour. Some need pre-treatment, e.g. the spray coating technique has a number of drawbacks like unevenness and a wide spread due to a high treatment temperature. The cost of fabrication is high and time-consuming when using the photolithography process. Limited electrode thicknesses and substrate are provided with the DVD burner process. Hence, these processes may not suit flexible EDLCs with a variety of material substrates, AC electrodes and gel electrolyte patterns and thicknesses. However, one of the major challenges of component Abstract The rapid development of flexible energy storage devices is crucial for various electronics industries. Highly flexible electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLCs) can be manufactured by 3D printing technology. It was a great challenge to fabricate multiple material layers of the EDLC in one rapid and accurate deposition event. The fabricated structures were composed of twelve electrodes which could be configured in a number of different ways in one block module. This work aims to investigate the performance of the flexible EDLCs manufactured by 3D printing in a honeycomb pattern. The EDLC cells were fabricated using a slurry made from commercial activated carbon (AC) and a gel electrolyte deposited on a transparent silicone substrate. The flexible EDLCs structures can be used in flexible electronics with different patterns and sizes using 3D printer and can be applied to many applications such as wearable technology.