Nafion® and Fumapem® polymer electrolytes for the development of advanced solid-state supercapacitors

Abstract

Solid polymer electrolytes can be suitable materials for the development of more compact, flexible and safer solid-state supercapacitors. For this reason we have assembled supercapacitors with two different solid polymer electrolytes and studied their features. The two electrolytes were both perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA); and specifically Nafion® 115 was purchased by DuPont™ and Fumapem® F-950 was kindly received by FuMA-Tech GmbH (Germany). Both electrolytes were available and used both as self-standing membranes and as ionomer dispersion. The electrolyte membranes, e.g. Nafion® 115 and Fumapem® F-950, were used as solid electrolyte membranes between the electrodes of supercapacitors and, 5wt% Nafion (Aldrich Chemistry) and Fumion solution (FuMA-Tech) were used in the preparation of the electrodes. The electrodes and the polymer electrolyte membranes were assembled to realize four different supercapacitors, which were electrochemical characterized to determine their respective specific capacitances, resistances, specific energies and power densities. The results of the cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge/discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis, evidenced the superior performance of supercapacitor based on Nafion electrolyte membrane and Nafion/carbon electrodes in terms of specific capacitance and electrical series resistance. In fact, specific capacitance of 123Fg−1 and resistance of 0.31Ωcm2 were exhibited from this supercapacitor while the respective results for the best other SC assemblies were 96Fg−1 and 0.57Ωcm2.