Prospective advances in MXene inks: screen printable sediments for flexible micro-supercapacitor applications

Abstract

Additive manufacturing industries have been focusing on the development of novel ink formulation strategies that can incorporate functional materials to print highly efficient electronic patterns for flexible devices. Such printed micropatterns were found to miniaturize the device components and their mechanical deformability offers wearability. In this regard, key issues like the selection of functional materials, the choice of an appropriate sediment ink, its effective formulation, and the selection of appropriate printing technology provide a rational trajectory towards the fabrication of high-performance devices. Recently, MXene based screen printable inks have been gaining attention due to their unique mechanical, electronic, and rheological properties and their printed architectures have shown potential viability as charge storage components in flexible devices. Herein, we report the recent advancements in screen printable transition metal carbide and nitride (MXene) ink formulations and their challenges for flexible micro-supercapacitor (MSC) applications. This review work focuses on (i) efficient MXene based ink formulation strategies for screen-printing applications, (ii) the strategies to improve the substrate and ink interactions, (iii) methods to address the issues like the oxidative and deformation stability of screen printed MXene MSCs, and (iv) challenges in the integration of these MXene MSCs as energy storage components in device architectures.