Robust, Conductive, and High Loading Fiber-Shaped Electrodes Fabricated by 3D Active Coating for Flexible Energy Storage Devices
Xingxian Lan, Taijin Tang, Huarui Xie, Syed Waqar Hasan, Lizhe Liang, Zhi Qun Tian, Pei Kang Shen
Abstract
Flexible power sources are critical to achieve the wide adoption of portable and wearable electronics. Herein, a facile and general strategy of fabricating a fibrous electrode was developed by 3D active coating technology, in which a stepping syringe with electrode paste was synchronously injected onto a rotating conductive wire, distinguished from the conventional direct-write 3D printing without a current collector. A series of such electrodes with different coating weight can be fabricated accurately and efficiently by adjusting critical process parameters following a set of derived equations. The demonstrated fibrous Zn–MnO2 battery with a high commercial ε-MnO2 loading of 14.9 mg cm–2 onto a stainless steel wire shows a reasonable energy density of 108 mWh cm–3, while the fiber-shaped supercapacitor with commercial porous graphene exhibits a high capacitance of 142.9 F g–1 and good durability for bending 10,000 cycles. This work constructs a bridge between materials and fiber-shaped electrodes for flexible energy storage devices.