Cut-and-stack nanofiber paper toward fast transient energy storage

Abstract

Transient technology allows a device to disappear upon application of an external trigger. The difference between a transient energy storage device and conventional one is this ability to vanish to human eyes when needed. For the first time, a symmetric vanadium oxide (V₂O₅) microbattery with transient energy storage capabilities was designed and developed in this work. A V₂O₅ nanofiber paper, lithiated V₂O₅ nanofiber paper, and an electrospun polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) nanofiber paper were used as the positive electrode, negative electrode, and the porous membrane, respectively. All these components are electrochemically stable in the organic electrolyte battery devices, but are chemically dissoluble in alkaline, once triggered. These paper structures have small diffusion distances, resulting in good transient capability. The nanostructures also enable high-rate discharge, which is essential for transient electronic systems. Miniature battery arrays using the paper-like electrodes and separator were produced through a simple cut-and-stack process, which then can be wire-bonded to systems with radio-frequency identification (RFID) technologies.