Piezoionic Interface Engineering Enabled High Energy Density and Suppressed Self‐Discharge in Flexible Supercapacitors

ABSTRACT Self‐discharge remains a persistent challenge in electrochemical energy storage, especially in interface‐dominated flexible supercapacitors, where suppressing charge loss often compromises ion transport and energy density. Here, we report a piezoionic interface engineering strategy that uses mechanical pressure as an active variable to regulate interfacial ion transport and charge relaxation. Guided by the Hofmeister effect, a PVA‐based hydrogel electrolyte with tunable piezoionic behavior is developed to generate pressure‐induced ionic polarization. Upon compression, improved interfacial conformality drives ions into deeper micropores and promotes the formation of a more compact electric double layer, thereby enhancing capacitance. Meanwhile, the induced polarization field stabilizes interfacial charge distribution and suppresses ion desorption, leading to slower self‐discharge. As a result, the flexible supercapacitor achieves an energy density of 112.4 µWh cm −2 at 100 µW cm −2 under 100 kPa and retains 90.1% of its stored energy after 1 h of open‐circuit rest, representing a 3.2‐fold improvement over the unpressurized state. As a proof of concept, the flexible supercapacitor powers a wireless wearable insole system. This work provides a pressure‐regulated interfacial design paradigm for simultaneously enhancing energy density and charge retention in flexible supercapacitors.

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Publication Details

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Small
Published
2026-06-17
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.74182
Primary Topic
Supercapacitor Materials and Fabrication
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Piezoionic Interface Engineering Enabled High Energy Density and Suppressed Self‐Discharge in Flexible Supercapacitors

Jianmin Wu, Lijia Pan, Xidi Sun, Yuqiong Sun et al.
Small
Supercapacitor Materials and Fabrication
article

Piezoionic Interface Engineering Enabled High Energy Density and Suppressed Self‐Discharge in Flexible Supercapacitors

Jianmin Wu, Lijia Pan, Xidi Sun, Yuqiong Sun, Wen Cheng, Lulu Li, Y Shi, Yukai Zhou, X S Guo, Y Jiang
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Self‐discharge remains a persistent challenge in electrochemical energy storage, especially in interface‐dominated flexible supercapacitors, where suppressing charge loss often compromises ion transport and energy density. Here, we report a piezoionic interface engineering strategy that uses mechanical pressure as an active variable to regulate interfacial ion transport and charge relaxation. Guided by the Hofmeister effect, a PVA‐based hydrogel electrolyte with tunable piezoionic behavior is developed to generate pressure‐induced ionic polarization. Upon compression, improved interfacial conformality drives ions into deeper micropores and promotes the formation of a more compact electric double layer, thereby enhancing capacitance. Meanwhile, the induced polarization field stabilizes interfacial charge distribution and suppresses ion desorption, leading to slower self‐discharge. As a result, the flexible supercapacitor achieves an energy density of 112.4 µWh cm −2 at 100 µW cm −2 under 100 kPa and retains 90.1% of its stored energy after 1 h of open‐circuit rest, representing a 3.2‐fold improvement over the unpressurized state. As a proof of concept, the flexible supercapacitor powers a wireless wearable insole system. This work provides a pressure‐regulated interfacial design paradigm for simultaneously enhancing energy density and charge retention in flexible supercapacitors.

Small
Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures (CN), Nanjing University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 17%
Supercapacitor Materials and Fabrication
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