3D printing of highly flexible supercapacitor designed for wearable energy storage

The rapid development of flexible energy storage devices is crucial for various applications. However, it is still difficult to manufacture functional flexible electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLCs) in one single process due to many different types of materials being used in EDLCs. This paper presents a novel method of manufacturing highly flexible EDLCs by using an open source 3D printer. The EDLC components were fabricated using a single paste extrusion in a layer wise manner. The detailed fabrication process for a highly flexible EDLCs device has been demonstrated, where acetoxy silicone was used as the flexible substrate. The purpose of this study has been to develop a single continuous manufacturing process for EDLC and to investigate the electrochemical performances of 3D printed flexible supercapacitors. Mechanical bending tests were carried out to prove the stability of the electrochemical performance and flexibility of the 3D printed supercapacitors.