Advanced Porous Gold-PANI Micro-Electrodes for High-Performance On-Chip Micro-Supercapacitors

The downsizing of microscale energy storage devices is crucial for powering modern on-chip technologies by miniaturizing electronic components. Developing high-performance microscale energy devices, such as micro-supercapacitors, is essential through processing smart electrodes for on-chip structures. In this context, we introduce porous gold (Au) interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) as current collectors for micro-supercapacitors, using polyaniline as the active material. These porous Au IDE-based symmetric micro-supercapacitors (P-SMSCs) show a remarkable enhancement in charge storage performance, with a 187% increase in areal capacitance at 2.5 mA compared to conventional flat Au IDE-based devices, despite identical active material loading times. Our P-SMSCs achieve an areal capacitance of 60 mF/cm², a peak areal energy density of 5.44 μWh/cm², and an areal power of 2778 μW/cm², surpassing most reported SMSCs. This study advances high-performance SMSCs by developing highly porous microscale planar current collectors, optimizing microelectrode use, and maximizing capacity within a compact footprint.