Gel Electrolyte Based Supercapacitors with Higher Capacitances and Lower Resistances than Devices with a Liquid Electrolyte

ABSTRACTRecently, gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) have been drawn noteworthy attention for different applications, specifically, for supercapacitors. GPEs could become an excellent substitute to liquid electrolytes (LEs) for making flexible and more durable devices. The performance of two different electrolytes (GPEs and LEs) in multi-wall carbon nanotube based supercapacitors were investigated. In spite of significantly lower conductivity of GPEs than LEs, devices with the gel electrolyte presented a superior performance. More focused has been given in this work on demonstrating the performance of supercapacitors based on GPEs and LEs at different concentrations of the acids ranging from 1M to 3M. Both electrolytes have been characterized at room temperature by making supercapacitors and using cyclic voltammetry, charging-discharging, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and leakage tests. The experimental results showed that GPE devices had much better capacitances and resistances compare to the LE based devices. Moreover, the capacitances of all devices were increased proportionally with the increase in the concentration from 1M to 3M, and the resistances were increased inversely with the decreased of concentration. The promising results from the gel electrolytes is encouraging for further development of flexible and high capacitance energy storage devices.