Monolithic Fabrication of Metal-Free On-Paper Self-Charging Power Systems

Self-charging power systems (SCPSs) are envisioned as promising solutions for emerging electronics to mitigate the increasing global concern about battery waste. However, present SCPSs suffer from large form factors, unscalable fabrication, and material complexity. Herein, a type of highly stable, eco-friendly conductive inks based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) are developed for direct ink writing of multiple components in the SCPSs, including electrodes for miniaturized spacer-free triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) and microsupercapacitors (MSCs), and interconnects. The principle of “one ink, multiple functions” enables to almost fully print the entire SCPSs on the same paper substrate in a monolithic manner without post-integration. The monolithic fabrication significantly improves the upscaling capability for manufacturing and reduces the form factor of the entire SCPSs (a small footprint area of ≈2 cm × 3 cm and thickness of ≈1 mm). After pressing/releasing the TENGs for ≈79000 cycles, the 3-cell series-connected MSC array can be charged to 1.6 V while the 6-cell array to 3.0 V. On-paper SCPSs are promising to serve as lightweight, thin, sustainable, and low-cost power supplies.Peer reviewe