Screen-Printed functional materials for energy storage and Harvesting: From Fundamentals to integrated supercapacitors and nanogenerators

Flexible electronics and self-powered wearable systems require fabrication platforms that simultaneously enable high-performance energy storage and harvesting on conformable substrates at industrial scale, yet no single method has consolidated these capabilities with the reproducibility demanded by practical deployment. Screen-printing addresses this gap through precise ink deposition, minimal material waste, and compatibility with polymers, textiles, and paper across roll-to-roll production formats. This review critically synthesizes progress in screen-printed supercapacitors and nanogenerators, providing unified analysis of ink engineering, electrode materials, device architectures, and integration strategies that existing reviews treat independently. Electrode materials spanning carbon systems, MXenes, transition metal oxides, conducting polymers, and hybrid nanocomposites are appraised, with the literature reporting areal capacitances up to 4979 mF/cm², energy densities reaching 62 µWh/cm², and cycling retention exceeding 90% after 10,000 cycles. Mechanical stability under repeated bending and substrate adhesion over extended operation are evaluated alongside electrochemical performance. Screen-printed piezoelectric, triboelectric, and pyroelectric nanogenerators, directly interfaced with printed supercapacitors in self-powered configurations, deliver output voltages reaching 103 V. Batch reproducibility and process standardization are examined as prerequisites for transitioning screen-printing from laboratory prototyping to scalable manufacturing. Machine learning-guided optimization, hybrid printing approaches, and multifunctional ink design are identified as convergent pathways toward this goal.