Name : Koduru Sudheer

Entry No : 2017PH10822
Title : Supercapacitor
Points addressed in the excerpt:
1. What is a supercapacitor and how does it work?
2. How is it different from other capacitors like parallel plate capacitor?
3. Broad classification of supercapacitors.
3. What is its relevance in today’s world?

Whats a super capacitor?

A supercapacitor is nothing but a high-capacity capacitor with
capacitance values much higher than normal capacitors but lower
voltage limits.it can store 10 to 100 times more energy per unit volume
or mass than electrolytic capacitors, can receive and deliver charge
much faster than batteries, and tolerate more charging-
discharging cycles than rechargeable batteries.
How does it work?
To address this, lets first see how a capacitor works.
A capacitor consists of two conductors separated by non-conductive
region. The non-conductive region can either be vacuum or an electrical
insulator material. From Coulomb's law a charge on one conductor will
exert a force on the charge carriers within the other conductor, attracting
opposite polarity charge and repelling likexsssz polarity charges, thus an
opposite polarity charge will be induced on the surface of the other
conductor. The conductors thus hold equal and opposite charges on
their facing surfaces, and the dielectric develops an electric field.
How supercapacitors work?
Supercapacitors are made of metal foil (electrodes), each layered
with activated carbon. These foils sandwich the separator in between.
The separator is an ion-permeable membrane such as graphene (used
in modern supercapacitor) which provides the insulation and exchange
of ions of the electrolyte between the electrodes.

How are supercapacitors different from other capacitors like

parallel plate capacitor?
Unlike ordinary capacitors, supercapacitors do not use the conventional
solid dielectric, but rather, they use electrostatic double-layer
capacitance and electrochemical pseudocapacitance, both of which
contribute to the total capacitance of the capacitor. The electrodes of
supercapacitor is coated with active carbon as electrode material. A
separator is used between Anode and Cathode in Supercapacitor unlike
dielectric materials in parallel plate capacitor.
Moreover, in conventional capacitors energy is stored in form of electric
field. Whereas, Supercapacitor stores energy between the ions of the
electrolyte & electrode in a double layer of charge.
Classification of supercapacitors:
Supercapacitors are classified as:
 Electrostatic Double-Layer Capacitors (EDLC’s)
 Electrochemical Pseudocapacitors
 Hybrid Supercapacitors

Lets discuss briefly about them :

1. Electrostatic Double-Layer Capacitors (EDLC’s)
The striking feature of these capacitors is that they perform charge
storage electrostatically(Helmholtz layer). They use carbon electrodes or
derivatives with much higher electrostatic double-layer capacitance than
electrochemical pseudocapacitance, achieving separation of charge in a
Helmholtz double layer at the interface between the surface of a
conductive electrode and an electrolyte. The separation of charge is of the
order of a few ångströms (0.3–0.8 nm), much smaller than in a
conventional capacitor.

2. Electrochemical Pseudocapacitors
The main feature of these capacitors is that they store charge
electrochemically(faradaically). Electrochemical pseudocapacitors use
metal oxide or conducting polymer electrodes with a high amount of
electrochemical pseudocapacitance additional to the double-layer
capacitance. Pseudocapacitance is achieved by Faradaic electron
charge-transfer with redox reactions, intercalation or electrosorption.
3. Hybrid Supercapacitors
The notable feature here is that they perform charge storage both
electrostatically and electrochemically. Hybrid capacitors, such as the
lithium-ion capacitor, use electrodes with differing characteristics: one
exhibiting mostly electrostatic capacitance and the other mostly
electrochemical capacitance.

Relevance in modern world and important industrial applications :

As we stated above, the supercapacitors possess high values of

capacitance due to the contribution of electrostatic double-layer
capacitance and electrochemical pseudocapacitance and hence gives
them an edge in having faster charging and discharging cycles rendering
them useful in applications requiring many rapid charge/discharge
cycles, rather than long term compact energy storage — in automobiles,
buses, trains, cranes and elevators, where they are used for
regenerative braking, short-term energy storage, or burst-mode power
delivery.
And primal research is being done in exploiting supercapacitors to invent
a feasible alternative to traditional batteries.

Conclusion:
The upcoming future has bright prospects in terms of discoveries in the
field of supercapacitors to bring them out as an alternative to renewable
sources of energy. Moreover, their advantages of having long life cycle,
high energy storage, fast charging and discharging time and high load
currents makes them viable as an efficient source of energy storage,
thus having numerous applications in the industrial field.

References:

 Wikipedia
 The role of nanomaterials in redox-based supercapacitors for next
generation energy storage devices
- Peter Dobson, Patrick S.Grant
 Supercapacitors-Nanotechnology
- Liming Dai, Case Western Reserve University, USA
Yury Gogotsi, Drexel University, USA
Husnu Emrah Unalan, Middle East Technical University, Turkey