Publication: Electric double-layer capacitors with tea waste derived activated carbon electrodes and plastic crystal based flexible gel polymer electrolytes
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
IOP Publishing Ltd
Abstract
We report a novel configuration of symmetrical electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) comprising a plastic crystalline succinonitrile (SN) based flexible polymer gel electrolyte, incorporated with sodium trifluoromethane sulfonate (NaTf) immobilised in a host polymer poly (vinylidine fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVdF-HFP). The cost-effective activated carbon powder possessing a specific surface area (SSA) of similar to 1700 m(2)g(-1) containing a large proportion of meso-porosity has been derived from tea waste to use as supercapacitor electrodes. The high ionic conductivity (similar to 3.6x10(-3) S cm(-1) at room temperature) and good electrochemical stability render the gel polymer electrolyte film a suitable candidate for the fabrication of EDLCs. The performance of the EDLCs has been tested by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and galvanostatic charge-discharge studies. The performance of the EDLC cell is found to be promising in terms of high values of specific capacitance (similar to 270 F g(-1)), specific energy (similar to 36 Wh kg(-1)), and power density (similar to 33 kW kg(-1)).