A 3-V electrochemical capacitor study based on a magnesium polymer gel electrolyte by three different carbon materials

Abstract

An organic medium with lithium and sodium salts is not so safe in some cases. Structural features of carbon electrodes play a vital role on the capacitor parameters. Based on that above said, we have studied three kinds of supercapacitors using a gel electrolyte from 0.5 M of magnesium imide salt–polyethylene oxide (PEO) in propylene carbonate (PC). The cell electrodes were carbide derived carbon (CDC), PICACTIF and YECA activated carbons. The gel component interactions were viewed by infrared spectroscopy. The cell reversibility and symmetric were analyzed using cyclic voltammetry (CV) technique. Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) technique was taken to approximate the electrolyte stability. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) result reflects the resistance and capacitive behavior of the cells, i.e., The YECA carbon shows a good capacitive behavior over the CDC- and PICACTIF-based cells whereas the CDC cell has shown a low resistance. Galvanostatic charge-discharge study (CD) results have shown a stable and ideal 2.5-V capacitor behavior. The capacitors have also proven an obtainable good specific capacitance, real power, and real energy density of ~25 F g−1, 0.7 kW kg−1, and 25 W·h kg−1, respectively. Moreover, the cells were tested for 3-V limit.