Ahmad Niyaz, Rinaldi Alessia, Setti Michele, Sidoli Michele, Scaravonati Silvio, Vezzoni Vincenzo, Magnani Giacomo, Riccò Mauro, Milanese Chiara, Titirici Maria-Magdalena, Pontiroli Daniele
Nanocarbon Laboratory, cIDEA & Department of Mathematical, Physical and Computer Sciences, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 7/A, 43124 Parma, Italy.
GISEL National Centre of Reference for Electrochemical Energy Storage Systems, INSTM National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology, Via Giusti 9, 50121 Firenze, Italy.
ACS Appl Energy Mater. 2025 Jun 22;8(13):9391-9406. doi: 10.1021/acsaem.5c01039. eCollection 2025 Jul 14.
The implementation of environmentally green materials in energy storage technologies is essential to ensure a fair and ethical transition to net zero. In this work, we present a gel electrolyte (GPE) based on pectin, a biodegradable natural biopolymer synthesized by using lithium chloride (LiCl) and potassium iodide (KI) as redox additives to enhance the performance of a supercapacitor. GPE shows enhanced thermal stability and flame retardancy, as confirmed by thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetry analysis. The optimized redox-additive GPE exhibits high flexibility and outstanding electrochemical properties including a high ionic conductivity (σ = 43 mS cm) at room temperature and a wide stable potential window (∼2 V vs Ag/Ag). The optimized GPE, with a redox additive and without, was tested with activated carbon electrodes derived from melon peel waste in symmetric supercapacitors. The addition of a redox additive to GPE films directly influences the performance of supercapacitors, leading to a 5 times increase in the specific capacitance (∼437 F g) and specific gravimetric energy density (∼34 Wh kg). The optimized supercapacitor exhibits stable cycling performance up to ∼8000 cycles by having an initial ∼31% fade in capacitance and a high Coulombic efficiency close to 99-100%.
在储能技术中采用环境友好型材料对于确保向净零排放的公平且符合道德的转型至关重要。在这项工作中，我们展示了一种基于果胶的凝胶电解质（GPE），果胶是一种可生物降解的天然生物聚合物，通过使用氯化锂（LiCl）和碘化钾（KI）作为氧化还原添加剂来合成，以提高超级电容器的性能。热重分析和差示扫描量热分析证实，GPE具有增强的热稳定性和阻燃性。优化后的含氧化还原添加剂的GPE表现出高柔韧性和出色的电化学性能，包括室温下的高离子电导率（σ = 43 mS cm）和宽稳定电位窗口（相对于Ag/Ag约为2 V）。在对称超级电容器中，使用从瓜皮废料衍生的活性炭电极对添加和未添加氧化还原添加剂的优化GPE进行了测试。向GPE薄膜中添加氧化还原添加剂直接影响超级电容器的性能，导致比电容（约437 F g）和比重量能量密度（约34 Wh kg）增加了5倍。优化后的超级电容器在高达约8000次循环时表现出稳定的循环性能，初始电容衰减约31%，库仑效率接近99 - 100%。
