Asymmetric micro-supercapacitors based on electrodeposited Ruo2 and sputtered VN films

Abstract Research on micro-supercapacitors remains one of the most important activities in the area of electrochemical energy storage for powering smart and miniaturized electronic devices. Here we design an asymmetric micro-supercapacitor (A-MSC) combining sputtered vanadium nitride film (VN) and electrodeposited hydrous ruthenium oxide (hRuO2) film. Taking advantage of their complementary electrochemical potential windows in 1M KOH electrolyte, the A-MSC achieves a cell voltage up to 1.15 V, associated to high specific capacitance values for the device (≈ 100 mF cm−2). The energy density of this asymmetric VN / hRuO2 micro-supercapacitor reaches 20 µWh cm−2 at a power density of 3 mW cm−2. Taking benefit from the asymmetric configuration, a 5-fold enhancement factor in energy density is demonstrated for the VN / hRuO2 asymmetric micro-supercapacitor as compared to symmetric VN / VN and hRuO2 / hRuO2 microdevices.