Rapid growth of the
internet of things and health monitoring systems
have stimulated the development of flexible, wearable, and conformal
embedded electronics with the unprecedented need for energy storage
systems fully adaptable to diverse form factors. Conventional fabrication
methods, such as photolithography for electronics and electrode winding/stacking
for energy storage systems, struggle as fabrication strategies to
produce devices with three-dimensional, stretchable, and conformal
form factors. In this study, we demonstrate the fabrication of supercapacitors
on 3D objects through inkjet and water-transfer printing. The devices
are initially printed on a water-soluble substrate, which is then
placed on the surface of water. Once the substrate is dissolved, the
level of water is lowered until the devices are transferred on to
the submerged 3D object. As a proof of concept, planar supercapacitors
constituted of a silver nanoparticle-based current collector, nickel(II)
oxide (NiO) nanoparticle-based active electrodes, and ultraviolet-cured
triacrylate polymer-based solid-state electrolyte were used as model
materials. The conformal supercapacitors showed a maximum areal capacitance
of 87.2 mF·cm–2 at a voltage window of 0–1.5
V. Moreover, the concept of water transfer was further explored with
a particular focus on wearable applications by transferring the supercapacitors
onto the skin of a human subject to realize epidermal energy storage.
This new class of conformal electrochemical energy storage offers
a new alternative approach toward monolithically integrated/object-tailored
energy storage systems that are essential for complex-shaped devices
for internet of things and flexible/on-skin electronic applications.