Photoresponsive and Redox-Active Chromophore-Based Materials for Advanced Supercapacitors: Recent Progress and Future...

The increasing demand for sustainable, lightweight, and high-performance energy-storage technologies has stimulated extensive research into organic electrode materials for supercapacitors. Among these, chromophore-based materials have emerged as promising candidates because of their tunable electronic structures, rich redox activity, extended π conjugation, and structural versatility. This review comprehensively summarizes recent advances in chromophore-derived supercapacitor materials, with particular emphasis on perylene, pyrene, porphyrin, quinoline, and related π-conjugated systems. The molecular design strategies employed to enhance electrochemical performance, including donor-acceptor engineering, heteroatom doping, framework construction, polymerization, and hybridization with conductive nanomaterials, are critically discussed. Furthermore, the structure-property-performance relationships governing charge storage, ion transport, conductivity, and cycling stability are systematically analyzed. A comparative evaluation of electrochemical metrics is presented with consideration of device configuration, electrolyte selection, and testing conditions to provide a balanced assessment of material performance. Although several chromophore-based systems exhibit promising capacitance, energy density, and long-term stability, challenges associated with intrinsic conductivity, scalability, and standardized benchmarking remain significant barriers to practical implementation. The review highlights the fundamental charge-storage mechanisms, key performance determinants, and emerging opportunities for molecular engineering of chromophores in next-generation energy-storage devices. By integrating insights from molecular design, electrochemical behavior, and device-level performance, this review provides a comprehensive framework for the rational development of advanced chromophore-based supercapacitors and identifies future directions toward sustainable and high-efficiency energy-storage technologies.