Flexible Electrode Substrate With Porous Carbon For Wearable Energy Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing lithium thin film batteries and flexible batteries face challenges such as high cost, safety concerns, low capacity, low efficiency, short cycle life, and complex manufacturing processes, making them unsuitable for ultra-small devices like wearable electronics, which require high-capacity, high-efficiency, and flexible energy storage solutions.
Innovation Solution
A flexible electrode substrate with a patterned porous electrode, where the flexible substrate is impregnated in the pores of the porous electrode, utilizing materials like reduced graphene oxide and activated carbon, and a coating layer with functional groups, enabling the substrate to be used in energy storage devices like supercapacitors and secondary batteries, and allowing for easy attachment and detachment from various surfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If lithium thin film batteries are used for wearable devices, then energy storage capacity is improved, but safety risks and short cycle life occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs porous carbon materials (such as reduced graphene oxide, activated carbon, carbon nanotubes) as electrode materials instead of conventional lithium thin films. The porous structure provides high surface area for electrochemical reactions, enabling high energy storage capacity while avoiding the safety risks and short cycle life associated with lithium-containing materials. The porous network allows efficient ion transport and accommodates volume changes during cycling, enhancing reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses composite material structures combining conductive polymers, carbon materials, and electrolytes in a flexible substrate matrix. This composite approach integrates the advantages of different materials: conductive polymers provide flexibility and electroactivity, carbon materials provide structural stability and high surface area, while the flexible substrate enables wearability. The composite structure achieves high energy storage capacity without compromising safety or cycle life.
2Adaptability or versatility
If flexible batteries are developed for wearable devices, then design flexibility is improved, but cost increases and manufacturing becomes complicated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs thin film structures deposited on flexible substrates (such as polymer films, textile fabrics) to create inherently flexible energy storage devices. The thin film electrodes can be conformally coated on curved or irregular surfaces, providing design flexibility for wearable applications. The flexible substrate serves as both structural support and ion transport medium, simplifying the overall device architecture and manufacturing process compared to conventional flexible batteries that require separate flexible components.
3Quantity of substance
If micro-supercapacitors are designed with higher capacitance, then energy density is improved, but flexibility and ease of attachment deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from planar two-dimensional electrode structures to three-dimensional porous network structures. The porous architecture provides vastly increased surface area within a compact volume, achieving high capacitance and energy density without increasing the device footprint. This dimensional transition allows the micro-supercapacitor to maintain flexibility and conformability to curved surfaces while storing more energy, as the porous structure can be integrated into thin flexible layers.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The flexible electrode substrate provides excellent electrochemical properties, adhesive strength, and durability, enabling high-capacity energy storage with long cycle life and ease of integration into wearable devices without performance degradation, even after repeated bending and attachment/detachment cycles.
Implementation Method 1
a flexible substrate; and a patterned porous electrode formed on one surface of the flexible substrate, wherein the flexible substrate is impregnated in pores of the patterned porous electrode
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are a flexible electrode substrate including a porous electrode, a method for manufacturing the flexible electrode substrate, and an energy storage element including the flexible electrode substrate. The flexible electrode substrate can be attached to various objects due to the excellent electrochemical properties and the adhesive properties thereof and thus is very useful. In particular, since the flexible electrode substrate can be used as an electrode of an energy storage element, an energy storage element including the flexible electrode substrate can be attached to various objects and thus can be used as a sticker-type energy storage element. In addition, the flexible electrode substrate can be easily manufactured by transfer method using a difference in adhesive strength and thus allows a simple manufacturing process thereof. Furthermore, electrodes having various patterns can be manufactured with high level of efficiency through simple adjustment of the manufacturing process.