Electrochemistry of Active Material in Supercapacitor Application
Nisha Dhiman1, Kumud Malika Tripathi1, Paritosh Mohanty2*
1Department of Chemistry, IIPE Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh-530003, INDIA
2Functional Materials Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand-247667, India
Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy Visakhapatnam
In supercapacitor research, three major areas that mostly decide the performance are the development of a methodology to synthesize supercapacitor electrode materials, finding appropriate electrolytes, and supercapacitor device designing with minimum self-discharging issues. Among these, the majority of the research is concentrated on electrode material development to improve the overall capacitance. Although large numbers of reports claiming very high specific capacitance (Csp) have emerged from these, the application of these materials for industrial-scale application is far from reality. From the commercial point of view, a higher mass loading may be preferred up to a certain point and beyond that the further increase in the thickness or mass loading results in the increase in the hindrance to the formation of efficient electrical double layers. In this research, the effect of active mass loading on the supercapacitor performance was investigated by synthesizing a new class of heteroatoms enriched hybrid material using the conventional condensation method. The synthesized material has a specific surface area (SABET) of 16 m2 g-1 and this was used as an electrode material for supercapacitor application. At low mass loading of 0.28 mg cm-2, a higher specific capacitance (Csp) of 555 F g-1 was estimated and the Csp value decreases with an increased mass loading. But it is not the case of estimating the areal capacitance (Car), which is considered as the critical factor for practical applications. The Car increases from 155 to 192 mF cm-2 with an increased mass loading from 0.28 mg to 0.79 mg, respectively. However, above this mass loading, the Car remains the same or decreases. This investigation suggests a pathway to use optimal active mass in the electrodes of the supercapacitor devices.
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