Fabrication of flexible printed supercapacitor with high cycling stability using Cobalt-Cerium layered double hydroxide

Advancements in wearable electronic devices demand for energy storage devices that are flexible. High-capacitance screen-printed supercapacitors can be used to power such electronic devices. This work includes the synthesis of cobalt-cerium layered double hydroxide nanomaterials and its use as electrode material for the fabrication of flexible symmetric microsupercapacitors. Nanomaterials having a high surface area of 95.469 m2 g−1 and pore volume of 0.225 cc g−1 were synthesised using the urea hydrolysis method. The flexible supercapacitor was fabricated using PVA/KOH gel electrolyte and an areal capacitance of 9.53 mF cm−2 at a current density of 0.5 mA cm−2, areal energy density of 2.98 μWh cm−2 and power density of 375.1 μW cm−2 was obtained. The Coulombic efficiency was calculated to be 97.4%. An areal capacitance retention of 96.93% was observed after 20,000 charge–discharge cycles. The flexibility of the fabricated supercapacitor was tested at different bending angles and for repeated bending cycles and 88.73% of the initial capacitance was retained after 10,000 bending cycles. The device was tested to power various electronic devices. The results indicate that the supercapacitor can be integrated into wearable biomedical devices.