Low-cost flexible supercapacitors with high-energy density based on nanostructured MnO(2) and Fe(2)O(3) thin films directly fabricated onto stainless steel

The facile and economical electrochemical and successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) methods have been employed in order to prepare manganese oxide (MnO(2)) and iron oxide (Fe(2)O(3)) thin films, respectively with the fine optimized nanostructures on highly flexible stainless steel sheet. The symmetric and asymmetric flexible-solid-state supercapacitors (FSS-SCs) of nanostructured (nanosheets for MnO(2) and nanoparticles for Fe(2)O(3)) electrodes with Na(2)SO(4)/Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) gel as a separator and electrolyte were assembled. MnO(2) as positive and negative electrodes were used to fabricate symmetric SC, while the asymmetric SC was assembled by employing MnO(2) as positive and Fe(2)O(3) as negative electrode. Furthermore, the electrochemical features of symmetric and asymmetric SCs are systematically investigated. The results verify that the fabricated symmetric and asymmetric FSS-SCs present excellent reversibility (within the voltage window of 0–1 V and 0–2 V, respectively) and good cycling stability (83 and 91%, respectively for 3000 of CV cycles). Additionally, the asymmetric SC shows maximum specific capacitance of 92 Fg(−1), about 2-fold of higher energy density (41.8 Wh kg(−1)) than symmetric SC and excellent mechanical flexibility. Furthermore, the “real-life” demonstration of fabricated SCs to the panel of SUK confirms that asymmetric SC has 2-fold higher energy density compare to symmetric SC.