Green synthesis of Silver-Zirconia composite using chitosan biopolymer binder for fabrication of electrode materials in supercapattery application for sustainable energy storage

Abstract

The supercapattery devices which are the hybrid energy storage systems have gained lot of research interest from the concerned stakeholders due to their superior storage characteristics encompassing that of batteries and supercapacitors. The green synthesis is claimed to be sustainable among different synthesis methods as it is ecofriendly compared to other chemical methods. In the present paper, a technique is proposed to synthesize and characterize Ag-Zirconia nanocomposite material using green synthesis. Sauropus Androgynus extract is used for the synthesis of the nano composite. For the preparation of working electrodes the binder used is chitosan biopolymer. Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersal X-Ray Spectroscopy and Powder X-Ray diffraction means are used to portray the biosynthesized nanoparticles. The most used investigation techniques namely Cyclic Voltammetry, Galvanostatic Charge Discharge and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy were employed to examine the electrochemical properties of the nanocomposite. It is observed from the obtained results that the Ag-Zirconia nanocomposites exhibited superior specific capacitance values and electrochemical stability than the pristine Zirconia. Further, a super capattery device using the synthesized nanocomposites and activated carbon is fabricated which shows improved 31.94 ​Wh/Kg of energy density at a power density of 500.86 ​W/kg. The steadiness of the devices is also observed to be excellent with a retaining capacity of 89% after 2500 cycles at 10 A/g. The eco-friendly and cost-effective nature of the fabricated device offered is expected to substantiate its suitability and sustainability in electrode materials for supercapattery applications.