Supercapacitors: A Project Report On
Supercapacitors: A Project Report On
Supercapacitors: A Project Report On
On
Supercapacitors
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One of the main issues faced in electrostatic field is how should it be stored. Due to
the demand in high speed charging, studies are being done on supercapacitor, as they can
deliver a rapid charge and discharge cycles as compared to a conventional battery. The reason
for the high capacitance value is high surface area and use of thinner dielectrics used in the
fabrication of supercapacitors. The term Supercapacitor was first used in 1978 when it was
used to provide backup power for maintaining computer memory. While batteries can store
large amounts of charge per unit volume, supercapacitors are much more efficient at
generating a large quantity of electric current within a short duration. This burst of electricity
helps supercapacitors to quickly charge up devices, unlike batteries that can take much
longer.
Besides having a high capacitance, they are devices with very high energy storage capacity
and relatively low internal resistance, due to the presence of an electrolyte in between the
electrodes. Due to its high-power capability a bank of supercapacitors, can bridge the short
time duration between a power failure and the start-up of backup power generators.
2. Types of Supercapacitors
Based on the energy storage mechanism supercapacitors are classified into three
classes:
Activated carbons
Electric double
Graphene
layer
Carbon
nanotubes
Supercapacitors
Metal Oxides
Pseudocapacitors
Conducting
Polymers
Hybrids
2.1. Electric Double layer Capacitors (EDLCs)
Ions in electrolyte
Accumulation of Potential Diffeence
Voltage is applied diffuse to opposite
charge is created
electrode
The principle of energy storage in EDLCs is electrochemical double layer. They can
either store charge electrostatically or via non faradic process i.e. no charge transfer between
the electrolyte and electrodes. To avoid recombination of ions at electrodes a double layer of
charge is formed. The double layer, combined with the increase in specific surface area and
distances between electrodes decreased, allows EDLCs to attain higher energy density. Due
to EDLC’s storage mechanism, a fast energy uptake and delivery takes place. Moreover, due
to the non-faradic process there is no chemical reaction thus eliminating the swelling
observed in active material.
Pseudo capacitors store charge via a faradic process which involves the transfer of charge
between the electrolyte and electrodes.
Passage of
Oxidation and Passage of
current through
Potential is applied Reduction on charge across the
supercapacitor
electrode double layer
cell
The faradic process allows them to achieve greater specific capacitance and energy density
compared to ELDCs. However due to the redox reactions they suffer from lack of stability
during cycles and having low power densities.
2.3. Hybrid
As seen that ELDCs can offer good cyclic stability and power performance while in
the case of Pseudo Capacitors it offers a good specific capacitance. By combining the energy
source of battery like electrode with a power source of capacitor like electrode in the same
cell. With the correct combination, it is possible to increases the cell voltage which leads to
an improvement in energy and power densities. Currently, researchers have focused on the
three different types of hybrid supercapacitors, which can be distinguished by their electrode
configurations: Composite, Asymmetric and Battery-type.
2.3.1. Composite
2.3.2. Asymmetric
Asymmetric hybrids combine Non faradic and Faradic processes by coupling and
EDLC with a Pseudo-capacitor electrode. They are set up in a way that the carbon material is
used as a negative electrode while either metal oxide or conducting polymer as positive
electrode.
2.3.3. Battery-type
3. Potential Materials
Supercapacitors based on Manganese Oxide have the potential to combine the storage
capacity of batteries and fast charging of supercapacitors. Hence being touted as a promising
material. Moreover, on combining with Cobalt Manganese Oxide it forms a hetero structure
which allows to tune the interfacial properties. Manganese Oxide when coupled to a
semiconductor created a conductive interface with low resistance to electron and ion
transport.
Cobalt manganese oxide when used as positive electrode and graphene oxide as negative one,
yields an asymmetric supercapacitor with high energy and power density and improved cyclic
stability.
3.2. Manganese Dioxide nanoparticles (Green Supercapacitors)
Being a cheaper, readily available, safer, and stable compared to other transition metal
oxides. Lignin, a natural polymer is used to enhance the electrochemical properties of the
electrodes. To create the electrode lignin was treated with Potassium Permanganate, a
commonly used disinfectant.
Coating of lignin and manganese dioxide mixture on aluminium plate to form a green
electrode. Other electrode made up of aluminium and activated charcoal and supercapacitor is
assembled by sandwiching a gel electrolyte. For optimal ratio of lignin and manganese
dioxide, the specific capacitance can go up-to as much as 900 times more than other
supercapacitors.
3.3. MXene
Using Ti3C2Tx (MXene) and a gel electrolyte as a separator could shorten the transport
distance of ions and increase the mass loading of active material at device scale. Due to
alternative stacking the capacitance was ultra-high 10.8 F cm-2 with high volumetric density
of 10.4mWh cm-3 at 75mW cm-3. It has highest value in aqueous gel electrolyte system
compared to ionic. To go with miniaturization and portability it is essential to improve the
volumetric energy density of electrochemical energy storage devices. High mass loadings can
decrease the inactive component ratio at the device level, thereby leading to increased energy
density as well as decreased cost. This new design offers a new approach to achieve advanced
high areal and volumetric energy density in electrochemical energy storage devices.
3.4. Graphene
Graphene a one atom thick layer 2D structure has emerged as a unique carbon
material that has potential for energy storage device applications because of its superb
characteristics of high electrical conductivity, chemical stability, and large surface area.
When used as supercapacitor electrode material it doesn’t depend on the distribution of pores
at solid state, as compared to other carbon materials such as activated carbon, carbon
nanotube.
Nickel oxide is among the promising electrode material for supercapacitor because of
its environmental friendliness, easy synthesis, and low cost. Among the benefits of
electrochemical strategy include reliability, simplicity, accuracy, low cost, and versatility. It
gives high specific capacitance of 1478 F/g in 1M KOH aqueous solution.
Integrating green tech into energy storage devices is tricky because it is difficult to control
the resulting electrical properties. It also includes chemical treatments which are hazardous.
For Faradic processes there is a charge transfer between the electrolyte and electrodes.
It states that there should be no charge transfer between the electrolyte and electrodes.
With the invention of supercapacitors an important alternative energy storage device emerged
offering high electrochemical properties, high power density and good stability. However,
there is still room for improvement in the design and fabrication of supercapacitors for them
to able to be used in more applications needing high energy density and the process of
fabrication being safer and more stable. Researchers are still focusing on the different
electrode materials like carbon materials, metal oxide and conducting polymers. Conducting
polymers show high specific capacitance, but the major challenges faced are their swelling
and shrinking when charging and discharging, leading to short lifetime, hence they require
some material to couple with e.g. MXene. With the discovery of graphene as electrode
material for supercapacitor, it has opened a lot of research opportunities being carried out.
Future work efforts should focus more on the effect graphene might have on other electrode
materials, which is by combining it with either metal oxides or conducting polymers to form
composites. Now researchers are focused on ternary composite which has been reported.