Miniature graphene-based supercapacitors fabricated by laser ablation

Abstract

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Micro-supercapacitors are high-performance energy storage devices, which are particularly important for building a micropower system to power portable and wearable devices. This study demonstrates a fabrication route for graphene-based in-plane micro-supercapacitors using a laser system for micromachining of electrodes on LTCC substrate. Micro-electrodes were patterned by programmed laser scanning. The proposed subtractive fabrication route is green, on demand and it enables the direct printing of micro-scale features (about 50 μm) with a precision of 2 μm. The width of electrodes was 210 μm, spacing between electrodes was 60 μm, and the length was 6.8 mm. In order to build all solid-state supercapacitive devices, a gel electrolyte was introduced into the active area of micro-electrodes (0.68 cm2). Laser patterning enables fabrication of micro-supercapacitors of arbitrary sizes and patterns, thus providing a good opportunity for miniaturized electronic applications. Electrochemical characterization was performed. The resulting micro-supercapacitors deliver an area capacitance of 80.5 μF/cm2.