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Updated: Jan 6, 2026

Evaluating the Electrochemical Properties of Supercapacitors using the Three-Electrode System
Published on: January 7, 2022
Charging Dynamics of Electric Double-Layer Nanocapacitors in Mean Field
Ivan Palaia1, Adelchi J Asta2, Megh Dutta3
1Institute of Science and Technology Austria, King's College London, Department of Physics, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom and , 3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria.
Abstract:
An electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC) stores energy by modulating the spatial distribution of ions in the electrolytic solution that it contains. We determine the mean-field timescales for planar EDLC relaxation to equilibrium after a potential difference is applied. We tackle first the fully symmetric case, where positive and negative ionic species have the same valence and diffusivity, and then the general, more complex, asymmetric case. Depending on the applied voltage and salt concentration, different regimes appear, revealing a remarkably rich phenomenology relevant for nanocapacitors.
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