A Layer‐by‐Layer Assembly Route to Electroplated Fibril‐Based 3D Porous Current Collectors for Energy Storage Devices

Abstract

Electrical conductivity, mechanical flexibility, and large electroactive surface areas are the most important factors in determining the performance of various flexible electrodes in energy storage devices. Herein, a layer‐by‐layer (LbL) assembly‐induced metal electrodeposition approach is introduced to prepare a variety of highly porous 3D‐current collectors with high flexibility, metallic conductivity, and large surface area. In this study, a few metal nanoparticle (NP) layers are LbL‐assembled onto insulating paper for the preparation of conductive paper. Subsequent Ni electroplating of the metal NP‐coated substrates reduces the sheet resistance from ≈103 to <0.1 Ω sq−1 while maintaining the porous structure of the pristine paper. Particularly, this approach is completely compatible with commercial electroplating processes, and thus can be directly extended to electroplating applications using a variety of other metals in addition to Ni. After depositing high‐energy MnO NPs onto Ni‐electroplated papers, the areal capacitance increases from 68 to 811 mF cm−2 as the mass loading of MnO NPs increases from 0.16 to 4.31 mg cm−2. When metal NPs are periodically LbL‐assembled with the MnO NPs, the areal capacitance increases to 1710 mF cm−2.

There is still plenty of room for layer-by-layer assembly for constructing nanoarchitectonics-based materials and devices

“…Lee, Cho, and co-workers fabricated three-dimensional porous current collectors for energy storage devices through LbL assemblies on electroplated fibrils. 101 The proposed metal electrodeposition approach induced by LbL assembly can be used for the preparation of highly porous three-dimensional current collectors that have large surface area, metallic conductivity, and high flexibility. Onto insulation papers containing fibril structures, a few layers of metal nanoparticles (tetraoctylammonium-stabilized Au nanoparticles) were first deposited to make them conductive, and then Ni electroplating was performed, resulting in the reduction of the sheet electrical resistance.…”

Direct Chemisorption-Assisted Nanotransfer Printing with Wafer-Scale Uniformity and Controllability

“…Wafer-Scale, Highly Uniform, and Controllable Si Nanostructures and Photodetectors. Herein, we demonstrate that the wafer-scale uniformity issue faced by the traditional formation of Si nanostructures could be significantly alleviated by replacing traditional catalyst patterning processes, such as colloidal, 43 tip-based, 44 and nanoimprint lithography, 45 with the CF-nTP method. We chose NWs as a representative structure to ensure great controllability and 6 in.…”

In-Situ Assembly of MoS2 Nanostructures on EHD-Printed Microscale PVDF Fibrous Films for Potential Energy Storage Applications

“…However, the low conductivity of PVDF restrains the energy storge performance. Although the specific capacitance of the MoS 2 -PVDF composite electrode remains a relatively low level, the energy storage capacity might be improved by using a high-conductivity current collector or coating conductive materials [ 35 , 36 ]. The EHD printing of high-conductivity materials is still the main challenges due to the electric-induced breakage of the ejected fibers.…”