K.A.U. Madhushani1,A.A.P.R. Perera1,Wang Lin1,Ram Gupta1
Pittsburg State University1
K.A.U. Madhushani1,A.A.P.R. Perera1,Wang Lin1,Ram Gupta1
Pittsburg State University1
The development of efficient energy storage devices can be introduced as a sustainable route for storing energy for long-term purposes. Among those, supercapacitors have attracted remarkable attention in recent research and commercial activities. Herein, several techniques have been used to improve the performance of the polyaniline-derived carbon material. Through the combined process of carbonization and activation process, the surface area and porosity of the electrode material are increased, leading to better electrochemical performance of the energy storage devices. Also, this can be significantly improved by selecting the best active electrolytes. Therefore, it is essential to find the best combination of electrodes and suitable electrolytes for the fabrication of supercapacitors to achieve higher chemical performances. The electrochemical performance of activated polyaniline using various ratios of KOH as an activating agent (1:0.5, 1:1, and 1:2 wt./wt.) was studied. The electrode derived using a 1:1 ratio showed better capacitive performances in an aqueous electrolyte. A symmetrical coin-cell supercapacitor based on 1:1 activated polyaniline was further tested in an aqueous electrolyte (6M KOH) and two organic electrolytes (TEATFB<sub>4</sub> in acetonitrile and PMPyrr-TFSI). The supercapacitor based on aqueous electrolyte exhibited a high specific capacitance of 137 F/g at 1 A/g, which is much higher than that of 88 F/g and 86 F/g from TEATFB<sub>4 </sub>and PMPyrr-TFSI, respectively. However, the energy and power density of these two organic electrolyte systems illustrated superior values compared to those of the aqueous electrolyte system. The highest energy and power density were owned by PMPyrr-TFSI, which was 182 Wh/kg and 1953 W/kg at 1 A/g, respectively. Our research focuses on developing an energy storage device based on the superior electrode that can be used for the fabrication of commercial supercapacitors.