Supercapacitors prepared by printing allow a simple manufacturing process, easy customization, high material efficiency and wide substrate compatibility. While printable active layers have been widely studied, printable electrolytes have not been thoroughly investigated despite their importance. A printable electrolyte should not only have high ionic conductivity, but also proper viscosity, small particle size and chemical stability. Here, gel-polymer electrolytes (GPE) that are compatible with printing were developed and their electrochemical performance was analyzed. Five GPE formulations based on various polymer-conductive substance combinations were investigated. Among them, GPE made of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) polymer matrix and LiClO4 conductive substance exhibited the best electrochemical performance, with a gravimetric capacitance of 176.4 F/g and areal capacitance of 152.7 mF/cm2 at a potential scan rate of 10 mV/s. The in-depth study of the in-plane solid-state supercapacitors based on various printed GPEs suggests that printable electrolytes provide desirable attributes for high-performance printed energy devices such as supercapacitors, batteries, fuel cells and dye-sensitized solar cells.
Keywords: gel polymer electrolyte; in-plane manufacturing; printing; solid-state supercapacitors.