Banavath Ramu, Zhang Yufan, Deshpande Sayyam, Dasari Smita Shivraj, Peat Stephnie, Kosmoski Joseph V, Johnson Evan C, Green Micah J
Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States.
Nabors Energy Transition Solutions LLC, Houston, Texas 77067, United States.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2025 Jun 11;17(23):34494-34503. doi: 10.1021/acsami.5c02847. Epub 2025 May 27.
Carbon nanomaterials have emerged as a promising solution for printed electronics, especially in microsupercapacitor (MSC) applications. This study examines the significance and compatibility of a newly developed industrial carbon nanomaterial derived from hydrocarbon streams via a scalable, catalyst-free process in a proprietary reactor. The carbon nanomaterials exhibit a unique morphology, characterized by nanoscale building blocks forming microscale networks, enhancing printed flexible electronics' efficiency. Here, we utilize carbon nano-onions (CNOs) as an electrode material for MSCs. In addition to CNOs' unique networked structure, high electrical conductivity, and large surface area make CNOs ideal for next-generation printed MSCs. The printed MSCs operate efficiently without metal current collectors, indicating that the printed electrodes with hydrocarbon-derived CNOs have sufficient conductivity comparable to that of metal-based current collectors. The printed MSCs demonstrated an excellent specific capacitance of 3.2 mF/cm, outperforming many graphene-based MSCs. Additionally, these MSCs exhibited outstanding cycling stability, retaining 97% of their capacity after 10,000 galvanostatic charge-discharge cycles, and superior capacitance retention of 91% at a bending angle of 180°. These results indicate that the networked structure of CNOs maintains capacitance at various bending angles, confirming their high compatibility with flexible printed electronics. The integration of hydrocarbon-derived CNOs into printed electronics not only facilitates the development of lightweight, flexible, and cost-effective devices but also opens the door to innovative printed electronic applications.
碳纳米材料已成为印刷电子领域一种很有前景的解决方案，尤其是在微型超级电容器（MSC）应用中。本研究考察了一种新开发的工业碳纳米材料的重要性和兼容性，该材料是在一个专利反应器中通过可扩展的无催化剂工艺从烃流中获得的。这些碳纳米材料呈现出独特的形态，其特征是纳米级构建块形成微观网络，提高了印刷柔性电子器件的效率。在这里，我们将碳纳米洋葱（CNO）用作MSC的电极材料。除了CNO独特的网络结构外，高电导率和大表面积使CNO成为下一代印刷MSC的理想材料。印刷的MSC在没有金属集流体的情况下高效运行，这表明含有烃衍生CNO的印刷电极具有与金属基集流体相当的足够电导率。印刷的MSC表现出3.2 mF/cm的优异比电容，优于许多基于石墨烯的MSC。此外，这些MSC表现出出色的循环稳定性，在10000次恒电流充放电循环后保持其容量的97%，并且在180°弯曲角度下具有91%的优异电容保持率。这些结果表明，CNO的网络结构在各种弯曲角度下都能保持电容，证实了它们与柔性印刷电子器件的高度兼容性。将烃衍生的CNO集成到印刷电子器件中，不仅有助于开发轻质、柔性且经济高效的器件，还为创新的印刷电子应用打开了大门。
