Roohi Zahra, Mighri Frej, Zhang Ze
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Sciences and Engineering, Université Laval, Quebec, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada.
Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval, Quebec, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada.
ACS Omega. 2025 Jul 18;10(29):31600-31609. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.5c02291. eCollection 2025 Jul 29.
High-performance and lightweight supercapacitors are in high demand in personal electronics and electric vehicles. In this work, the pseudocapacitance of a metal-free symmetric supercapacitor made of polypyrrole (PPy) membrane electrodes and a gel electrolyte containing 3% poly-(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) dissolved in 1 M sulfuric acid (PVA-HSO) was investigated. It was observed that the soft PPy membrane synthesized through docusate sodium and methyl orange-assisted interfacial polymerization (PPy-AOT) had a unique nanofibrous structure throughout the thickness of 1 mm. The PPy-AOT/PVA-HSO electrode is flexible, lightweight, free-standing, and free of metal, showing a lower environmental impact with respect to that of the high-performance supercapacitors using metals. A hypothetic mechanism was proposed to explain how such a nanofibrous structure is formed. The weight-based performance of the device was compared with different categories of supercapacitors and batteries, with its advantages and disadvantages discussed. The supercapacitor and electrode material were analyzed with various analytical techniques. Without using metals and carbon materials, the polymeric supercapacitor recorded a high areal capacitance of 4817.9 mF/cm and gravimetric capacitance of 430.0 F/g, with energy densities of 0.4 mWh/cm and 14.6 Wh/kg and power densities of 0.6 mW/cm and 174.6 W/kg. Such polymeric supercapacitors may find applications in cost- and environmentally sensitive areas.
高性能且轻质的超级电容器在个人电子产品和电动汽车中需求旺盛。在本工作中，研究了一种由聚吡咯（PPy）膜电极和含3%溶解于1 M硫酸中的聚（乙烯醇）（PVA）的凝胶电解质（PVA-HSO）制成的无金属对称超级电容器的赝电容。观察到通过磺基琥珀酸钠和甲基橙辅助界面聚合合成的柔软PPy膜（PPy-AOT）在1 mm的整个厚度上具有独特的纳米纤维结构。PPy-AOT/PVA-HSO电极具有柔性、轻质、自支撑且无金属的特点，与使用金属的高性能超级电容器相比，对环境的影响较小。提出了一种假设机制来解释这种纳米纤维结构是如何形成的。将该器件基于重量的性能与不同类别的超级电容器和电池进行了比较，并讨论了其优缺点。使用各种分析技术对超级电容器和电极材料进行了分析。在不使用金属和碳材料的情况下，该聚合物超级电容器记录到的面积电容为4817.9 mF/cm²，重量电容为430.0 F/g，能量密度为0.4 mWh/cm²和14.6 Wh/kg，功率密度为0.6 mW/cm²和174.6 W/kg。这种聚合物超级电容器可能会在对成本和环境敏感的领域找到应用。
