Three dimensional (3D) printed electrodes for interdigitated supercapacitors

• 3D electrodes are fabricated using Selective Laser Melting Additive Fabrication.
• The 3D electrodes deliver a comparable performance to those from lithography method.
• A solid state 3D supercapacitor is demonstrated using polymer electrolyte.

Common fabrication techniques typically require multiple and complex MEMS processing steps to create 3D electrode architectures. Here we report on the use of Additive Fabrication metal printing based on Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology to produce 3D titanium interdigitated electrodes. This was used as a platform to deposit polypyrrole and the resultant structure was evaluated for use as a capacitive electrode. We also demonstrate a solid-state interdigitated supercapacitor using a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)–H3PO4 polymer electrolyte.