Flexible planar concentric circular micro-supercapacitor arrays for wearable gas sensing application

• Published in: Nano energy 2017-11, Vol.41, p.261-268
• Main Authors: Li, La, Fu, Chengwei, Lou, Zheng, Chen, Shuai, Han, Wei, Jiang, Kai, Chen, Di, Shen, Guozhen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Energy storage; Flexible electronics; Micro-supercapacitors; Wearable electronics
• ISSN: 2211-2855
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2017.08.060

Micro-supercapacitor (MSC) are considered to be a promising candidate for wearable energy storage due to their scale down in dimensions to fit on-chip geometries of integrated nanosystem, high charge/discharge efficiency, long lifetimes and strong security compared to Li-ion batteries. In this work, we present a polypyrrole (Ppy) film based MSC arrays by combining photolithograph and electrodepositon method. The designed MSC with concentric circles structure exhibited a large areal capacitance of 47.42 mF/cm2 and provided a power density of 0.185mW/cm2 at an area energy density of 0.004 mWh/cm2. MSC arrays connected in series were utilized as power source to drive a wearable gas sensor on the same flexible substrate. As-designed wearable self-driven room temperature ethanol gas sensor showed a quick response time (13s) and recovery time (4.5s), good selectivity to ethanol and a high detection capability of less than 1ppm at room temperature, proving the feasibility of the wearable MSC arrays integrated gas sensing system and offering a quick, easy and comfortable way for personalized monitoring drunken driving. [Display omitted] •Flexible planar concentric circular micro-supercapacitor was fabricated.•Wearable self-powered ethanol gas sensors were designed.•Quick response/recovery time, good selectivity and high detection capability were obtained.•Ethanol gas monitoring and displaying are in real-time.