Study of electrical and thermal properties of PVA-nanosilica as a candidate for supercapacitor separators

Abstract

Separator in the supercapacitor that separates the cathode from the anode has an important role in a supercapacitor circuit. Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) is a substitute for polyolefin which is commonly used as a supercapacitor separator and PVA has more environmentally friendly properties. The addition of silica dioxide nanocomposites is useful for adding thermal stability and electrical insulators. The method used to make the separator is quite simple, namely by casting a PVA gel membrane with nanosilica on a glass plate and drying it at low temperature. PVA membrane with nanosilica variations different precursors are from sand by coprecipitation method and from TEOS. The properties of the two samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), and LCR meter. Nanosilica derived from sand and from TEOS have no much different characteristic.