Electrolyte-Philic Electrode Material with a Functional Polymer Brush.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Polymer Chemistry

Background:

• Improving electrode-electrolyte interfaces is crucial for advanced energy storage devices.
• Enhanced wetting and ion adsorption/desorption are key challenges in supercapacitor electrode design.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop novel electrolyte-philic electrode materials (EEMs) with improved surface wetting and electrochemical performance.
• To fabricate asymmetric supercapacitors using EEMs and evaluate their energy density, power density, and cycling stability.

Main Methods:

• Synthesized interconnected hierarchically porous carbon.
• Grafted electrolyte-philic polymer chains onto the carbon surface using surface-initiated electrochemical-mediated atom transfer radical polymerization.
• Fabricated asymmetric supercapacitors using EEM-g-polyvinylpyrrolidone or EEM-g-sodium polystyrenesulfonate as negative electrodes and Ni(OH)2 as positive electrodes.

Main Results:

• The EEM-g-polymer exhibited a capacity almost three times higher than the pristine material.
• Asymmetric supercapacitors achieved maximum energy densities of 27.8 W h/kg and 27.5 W h/kg.
• Capacitance retention reached 70.0% and 65.0% after 10,000 cycles for the respective devices.

Conclusions:

• The developed EEMs demonstrate superior performance for supercapacitor applications due to enhanced electrolyte wetting and ion transport.
• Tailorable polymer brushes allow for optimization in different electrolyte environments.
• These materials offer a viable pathway for high-performance and durable asymmetric supercapacitors.