Printed zinc paper batteries

Paper electronics offer an environmentally sustainable option for flexible and wearable systems and perfectly fit the available printing technologies for high manufacturing efficiency. As the heart of energy-consuming devices, paper-based batteries are required to be compatible with printing processes with high fidelity. Herein, hydrogel reinforced cellulose paper (HCP) is designed to serve as the separator and solid electrolyte for paper batteries. The HCP can sustain higher strain than pristine papers and are biodegradable in natural environment within four weeks. Zinc-metal (Ni and Mn) batteries printed on the HCP present remarkable volumetric energy density of ≈26 mWh cm-3 , and also demonstrate the feature of cuttability and compatibility with flexible circuits and devices. As a result, self-powered electronic system could be constructed by integrating printed paper batteries with solar cells and light-emitting diodes. The result highlights the feasibility of hydrogel reinforced paper for ubiquitous flexible and eco-friendly electronics.Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)Ministry of Education (MOE)Published versionP.Y. and J.L. contributed equally to this work. The authors acknowledge Dr. Shuwen Chen and Dr. Tianpeng Ding from National University of Singapore for assistance on the strain-stress measurements. The authors would like to acknowledge the Facility for Analysis, Characterization, Testing and Simulation (FACTS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, for use of their SEM and XRD facilities. H.J.F. acknowledges the financial support from the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR) by AME Individual Research Grant (A1883c0004), and Ministry of Education by Tier 1 (RG157/19). S.W.L. acknowledges the support by Academic Research Fund Tier 2 from Ministry of Education, Singapore (MOE2019-T2- 1-122)