A research team from Korea successfully developed a compact energy storage device. The highly deformable micro-supercapacitor used laser ablation technology.
KITECH Develops Micro-Supercapacitor Using Laser Technology
In a new study, Prof. Jin Kon Kim and Dr. Keon-Woo Kim from POSTECH worked with Dr. Chanwoo Yang and Researcher Seong Ju Park from the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) to successfully create a small energy storage device with exceptional elasticity.
The era of stretchable IT gadgets is upon us beyond foldable and rollable electronics. Creating tiny, flexible energy storage devices is crucial for these gadgets. Micro-supercapacitors (MSCs), which have small volumes and can power such electronic devices, are becoming increasingly popular in this regard.
However, the solid metals frequently employed as current collectors, such as gold (Au), are naturally less stretchable, greatly limiting their capacity to distort.
The crew chose gallium-indium liquid metal (EGaIn) to serve as the MSC current collector. Because it is a liquid, EGaIn is highly conductive and easily malleable. However, molding has presented severe technical difficulties. The group devised a laser patterning technique for EGaIn to circumvent this. They patterned EGaIn with the laser's high energy, using it as the MSC's current collector straightforwardly and accurately.
The research team developed an MSC that could be expanded and contracted more than 1,000 times without sacrificing its ability to store energy. Furthermore, this gadget showed steady energy supply capability even when folded, crumpled, or twisted.
Yang, the study's lead author, said, "Laser technology allows for precise work while also speeding up the process."
He added that he hoped the study would help develop and commercialize elastic energy storage devices, which would benefit various industrial applications.
What Are Micro-supercapacitors (MSCs)?
Micro-supercapacitors, albeit having a lower capacity than micro-batteries, have been viewed as a feasible option due to their faster charging and discharging times and nearly infinite lifespan.
The need for more compact electronics necessitates the creation of smaller energy-storage parts that can support the continuous, independent operation of electronic devices for uses like wireless sensor networks and wearable technology.
The remarkable improvements in MSC performance can be attributed mostly to nanoengineering of the device components, such as the shrinking of pseudocapacitance nanoparticles, which shortens the electroactive species' migration or diffusion route length.
Furthermore, MSCs' energy and power densities rise in tandem with an increase in the specific surface area of carbon nanoforms and pseudocapacitance components. In the upcoming years, MSC performance will be continuously improved through further research on all of its constituent parts, including carbon nano forms, metal oxides/hydroxides, chalcogenides, carbides, and phosphates, as well as organic redox species, conductive polymers, MOFs, MXenes, and others. Biomedical equipment and newly developed portable electronic applications will probably be its main drivers. With the advent of MSC 3D printing, various novel applications can be explored through the free-form construction and controllable 3D prototyping of MSCs.
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