Fabrication Technologies of Flexible Transparent Electrodes for Supercapacitors: Recent Advances and Perspectives

Flexible transparent portable electronic products provide substantial support for the rapid development of the intelligent era. Flexible transparent supercapacitors (FTSCs) are considered the most promising energy storage devices due to their exceptional electrochemical performance, outstanding mechanical flexibility, and high optical transmittance. However, it is difficult to balance their mechanical flexibility and optical transmittance. The key to reconciling the contradiction is to fabricate flexible transparent conductive electrodes (FTCEs) with excellent mechanical flexibility and optical transmittance by combining the characteristics of manufacturing technologies and electrode materials. In this review, the characteristics of advanced FTCEs manufacturing technologies and their applications in FTSCs are systematically summarized. First, the device structure, working mechanism, and basic performance of FTSCs are briefly introduced. Second, the manufacturing characteristic and principle of different FTCEs preparation technologies are mainly described, including vacuum filtration, coating, deposition, printing, and layer-by-layer assembly. Next, the device structure and design principle of multifunctional FTSCs are demonstrated in detail. Finally, the challenges and prospects of applying FTCEs manufacturing technology to construct FTSCs are proposed.