Inkjet-printed flexible, transparent and aesthetic energy storage devices based on PEDOT:PSS/Ag grid electrodes

Abstract

Flexible transparent PEDOT:PSS/Ag grids were inkjet printed on polyethylene terephthalate substrates. The combination of Ag grids with PEDOT:PSS not only compensates for the demerits of the single materials but also makes full use of their advantages. The Ag grids and the PEDOT:PSS layer offered extra conductive paths for each other, yielding a much lower sheet resistance of the PEDOT:PSS/Ag grids than that of either the Ag grids or the PEDOT:PSS layer, thus improving the electrochemical performance as well. The PEDOT:PSS layer could also boost the anti-oxidation capability as well as smoothen the line of the Ag grids. Various exquisite patterns of the modified PEDOT:PSS were inkjet printed on the delicate Ag grids, forming an aesthetic appearance. As a result, the PEDOT:PSS/Ag grid hybrid electrodes exhibited superior optoelectronic performance (T ∼89% and R_s ∼12 Ω sq⁻¹), very good electrochemical energy storage behaviours, high flexibility and delicate patterns. Inkjet-printed flexible transparent all-solid-state supercapacitors have thus been constructed with both aesthetic appearance and superior electrochemical performance for the first time using the resultant PEDOT:PSS/Ag grids as both current collectors and active electrode materials.