Aerosol Jet Printed MXene Microsupercapacitors for Flexible and Washable Textile Energy Storage
Anastasiia Shandra, Ke Li, Dahnan Spurling, Oskar Ronan, Tian Carey, Valeria Nicolosi
Abstract
Abstract Wearable electronic textiles (e‐textiles) require flexible, lightweight, and durable energy storage. Herein, a high‐resolution aerosol jet printing (AJP) technology is introduced to fabricate current collector‐free microsupercapacitors (MSCs) directly onto textiles using an additive‐free, aqueous Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene ink. The excellent pseudocapacitance, conductivity, and solution‐processability of Ti 3 C 2 T x enable uniform, binder‐free coatings. The resulting MXene@Fabric electrodes deliver up to 4.4 F cm −2 (at 5 mV s −1 ) areal capacitance, excellent rate capability, and near‐100% capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles. They also demonstrate remarkable wash durability, retaining electrochemical performance even after 100 wash cycles, underscoring their potential for real‐world e‐textiles. Leveraging these findings, fully printed, symmetrical, current collector‐free MSCs are fabricated on cotton in an interdigitated configuration. These devices exhibit an exceptional areal capacitance of up to 381 mF cm −2 at 2 mV s −1 in a poly(vinyl alcohol)/sulfuric acid gel electrolyte, outperforming other reported printed MXene/textile‐based MSCs. Their electrochemical behavior remains nearly unchanged under various bending angles, confirming mechanical robustness. The patterning flexibility of AJP also allows series and parallel integration, offering a practical route to tailor power and energy densities for diverse applications. This work showcases a versatile strategy for embedding high‐performance energy storage into flexible and washable e‐textiles, advancing next‐generation wearable electronics.