Design of multifunctional supercapacitor electrodes using an informatics approach

Multifunctional energy storage devices can greatly impact public safety and flexible electronics. For example, mechanically strong energy devices can prevent catastrophic failure in batteries or act as structural elements, simultaneously dissipating energy and bearing a load. Herein we report on a nanoarchitectonics approach, which implements an optimal experimental design framework to optimize the electrochemical and mechanical properties of a composite electrode. First, functional analysis was used to determine the weight percentages of the electrode components as control variables of interest in this material system. A utility function was then developed to measure the trade-offs between the electrochemical and mechanical properties. Finally, Gaussian process regression was used to model initial experimental data and optimal compositions were predicted using expected improvement acquisition methods.