An ionic liquid incorporated gel polymer electrolyte for double layer capacitors

Abstract

Energy storage devices have received a keen interest throughout the world due to high power consumption. A large number of research activities are being conducted on electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLCs) because of their high power density and higher energy density. In the present study, an EDLC was fabricated using natural graphite based electrodes and ionic liquid (IL) based gel polymer electrolyte (GPE). The IL based GPE was prepared using the IL, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate (1E3MITF) with the polymer poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) and the salt magnesium trifluoromethanesulfonate (Mg(CF3SO3)2 - MgTF). GPE was characterized by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), DC polarization test, linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) test and cyclic voltammetry (CV) test. The maximum room temperature conductivity of the sample was 1.64 x 10-4 Scm-1. The electrolyte was purely an ionic conductor and the anionic contribution was prominent. Fabricated EDLC was characterized by EIS, CV and galvanostatic charge discharge (GCD) tests. CV test of the EDLC exhibits a single electrode specific capacitance of 1.44 Fg-1 initially and GCD test gives 0.83 Fg-1 as initial single electrode specific discharge capacitance. Moreover, a good stability was observed for prolonged cycling and the device can be used for applications with further modifications.