Enhancing conductivity is important for supercapacitor electrochemical behavior, and this is especially evident when using nonmetallic 3D printed cell components. Here, we study two different 3D‐printed cell types and examine the influence of the conductivity enhancement of the printed current collector and the slurry composition on the response of supercapacitor cells. Current collectors printed using vat polymerization and subsequently metallized, and similar collectors made using conductive polylactic acid by fused deposition modeling, are compared in a similarly designed printed coin cells. Various slurry mixtures of porous Mn 3 O 4 with carbon electrode materials and additives (single‐walled carbon nanotubes, graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs), and Super‐P) bound with PVDF are compared in both types of cell. Electrochemical analysis using cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge–discharge measurements reveals that composite conductivity strongly influences charge storage behavior in 3D‐printed supercapacitors, while the conductivity of the current collector interface influences rate capability, ohmic losses, and long‐term cycling stability. Metallized Vat‐P printed current collectors, with smoother and entirely conductive interface with the composite material, offer improved voltammetric and galvanostatic stability and response for all slurries. Whereas FDM printed, rough PLA current collectors with sparsely distributed graphitic surface contacts to the electrode material, show poorer stability during long‐term cycling and rate tests.
Ferguson et al. (Thu,) studied this question.