Epidermal Supercapacitor with High Performance

Recent development in epidermal and bionic electronics systems has promoted the increasing demand for supercapcacitors with micrometer-thickness and good compatibility. Here, a highly flexible free-standing epidermal supercapacitor (SC-E) with merely 1 μm thickness and high performance is developed. Single-walled carbon nanotube/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) hybrid films with unique inner-connected reticulation are adopted as electrodes for ultrathin structure and high electric conductivity. Then, based on two substrates with different surface energies, a stepwise lift-off method is presented to peel off the ultrathin integrated supercapacitor from the substrates nondestructively. As a result of the high conductive hybrid electrodes and the thin electrolyte layer, the as-designed supercapacitors (based on the total mass of two electrodes) achieve a good capacitance of 56 F g−1 and a superhigh power density of 332 kW kg−1, which manifest superior performance in contrast to the other devices fabricated by traditional electrodes. Meanwhile, the ultrashort response time of 11.5 ms enables the epidermal supercapacitor (SC-E) work for high-power units. More importantly, the free-standing structure and outstanding flexibility (105 times bending) endow the SC-E with excellent compatibility to be integrated and work in the next generation of smart and epidermal systems.