A Study on Poly(ethylene oxide)-Based Supercapacitors Doped with Various Dopants

Abstract

In this study, different concentrations of lithium perchlorate (LiClO4) and various types of nanocarbons were applied to form poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-based electrochemical double-layer (EDL) supercapacitors. For samples doped with various concentrations of LiClO4, 1 g/L of LiClO4 was prepared and mixed with PEO solution in different ratios for different concentrations of PEO:Li+ mixtures for further solution casting. It was found that the maximum current density and specific capacitance of the sample prepared under the ratio of 100:1 of PEO:Li+ were 1.84 μA/cm2 with a scanning rate of 100 mV/s and 33.56 nF/cm2 at 40 Hz, respectively. These were 10 times and nearly 18 times better than the control capacitor prepared without LiClO4. In addition, nanocarbons with four different structures, including mesoporous carbon nanopowders (Meso) and multi-walled (MW), double-walled (DW) and single-walled (SW) carbon nanotubes, were mixed with PEO solution to prepare samples via solution casting. The comparison of four types of nanocarbons showed that DW contributed the highest maximum current density and the specific capacitance at 10.51 μA/cm2 under a scanning rate of 100 mV/s and 32.798 nF/cm2 at 40 Hz, 60 times and 17 times higher than that of the control sample casted without any dopants.