Fabrication of High-performance Supercapacitors Using Hierarchical MnO2 Nanostructures on a Frosted Glass Surface

A supercapacitor as an energy storage device, introduced to bridge the gap between batteries and capacitors. Supercapacitors are constructed using two electrodes with electrolyte filled inside them. The electrodes are comprised of high surface area to host large number of ions which consequently generate high capacitance. However, the processes involved to fabricate these electrodes are often strenuous and time-consuming. In this work, we report the fabrication of high-performance supercapacitors using frosted glass which are generally utilised for non-see-through windows, as a template to grow the electrodes. The frosted substrates can host much higher ions owing to the numerous surface features arising from micro- and nano-level roughnesses, resulting in one order higher capacitance than a plain surface. Electrodepositing pseudocapacitive MnO₂ nanostructures on the frosted surface further increases the capacitance about 6.5 times The roughened nature of the frosted glass can be imprinted onto the surface of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate to fabricate flexible and stretchable supercapacitors. The present work can pave the way for facile and low-cost fabrication of supercapacitor electrodes.