LAUSR

Transparent polymer electrolytes such as PVA-based H+, Li+, K+ and Na+ gels have been widely used as both electrolyte and separator for flexible transparent supercapacitors (FTSCs). However, these gels sandwiched between the electrodes in FTSCs are easily compressed under bending and compression duo to their viscous flow behavior, resulting in the deformation of electrode spacing and the unstable capacitance performance. To resolve this issue, herein we introduce monodispersed polystyrene (PS) microspheres into PVA-LiCl polymer gel electrolyte as spacers to precisely control the electrode spacing during the assembly of FTSCs using SWCNTs/ITO-PET or MnO2/MWCNTs/ITO-PET as transparent electrodes. The electrode spacing could be tuned by varying the diameter of PS microspheres, e.g., 20, 40 and 80 µm. More importantly, the PS microspheres spacers protect the gel electrolyte from squeeze when bending takes place, allowing the stable performance output by FTSCs under bending state. After repeating bending test, the capacitance remains 95.6%, indicating the high stability and flexibility of the devices with the assistance of PS microspheres spacers.