A Flexible Quasi-Solid-State Bifunctional Device with Zinc-Ion Microbattery and Photodetector

The development of flexible and wearable electronics has raised the demand for their power sources, which will be not only adequately compact, but also integrated on one flexible substrate. Therefore, microscale batteries with high flexibility and performance are desired to meet the requirement for miniaturizing energy storage devices and integrating them with other flexible electronics together. Here, a flexible quasi-solid-state bifunctional system with zinc-ion microbattery and photodetector was designed based on polyaniline and Zn microelectrodes. The bifunctional device not only displays the intrinsic behavior of microscale zinc-ion batteries with excellent energy and power densities, but also has the ability of photodetection. Furthermore, such bifunctional devices with desired sizes and shapes can be designed in series or in parallel on one chip to output enhanced voltage or current without external connection. More importantly, owing to the ultrathin thickness and unique all-in-one architecture, the bifunctional device can remain stable electrochemical performance and photocurrent response even under bending states. The novel design of such flexible bifunctional systems would pave a way for integrating energy storage devices and other electronics into flexible systems.