3D Printing of Additive-Free 2D Ti₃C₂T_<i>x</i> (MXene) Ink for Fabrication of Micro-Supercapacitors with Ultra-High Energy Densities

Abstract

Recent advances in the development of self-powered devices and miniaturized electronics have increased the demand for on-chip energy storage devices that can deliver high power and energy densities in a limited footprint area. Here, we report the fabrication of all-solid-state micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) through a three-dimensional (3D) printing of additive-free and water-based MXene ink. The fabricated MSCs benefit from the high electrical conductivity and excellent electrochemical properties of two-dimensional (2D) Ti₃C₂T_<i>x</i> MXene and a 3D interdigital electrode architecture to deliver high areal and volumetric energy densities. We demonstrate that a highly concentrated MXene ink shows desirable viscoelastic properties for extrusion printing at room temperature and therefore can be used for scalable fabrication of MSCs with various architectures and electrode thicknesses on a variety of substrates. The developed printing process can be readily used for the fabrication of flexible MSCs on polymer and paper substrates. The printed solid-state devices show exceptional electrochemical performance with very high areal capacitance of up to ∼1035 mF cm^-2. Our study introduces Ti₃C₂T_<i>x</i> MXene as an excellent choice of electrode material for the fabrication of 3D MSCs and demonstrates 3D printing of MXene inks at room temperature.