Polymer Electrolytes for Printed Batteries

Printing of solid polymer and gel electrolytes (GPE) remains a bottleneck in the all-printed batteries and the literature is scarce. This chapter compares the electrochemical performance of conventional bulk batteries and printed batteries with polymer electrolytes. Conventional batteries are fabricated by superposition of positive and negative electrodes coated on current collectors with an intermediate layer of a separator or polymer electrolyte. Screen-printing has been applied mainly to the fabrication of positive and negative electrodes for Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and supercapacitors. The rheology requirements of screen-printing inks are similar to those of the standard battery. Spray printing is attractive for sequentially printing multiple inks that share a common solvent one on top of the other. The main types of inkjet printing processes, which are related to direct-printing methods, are continuous and drop-on-demand (DOD).