The Composite Supercapacitor

Abstract

Inspired by the design of composite materials, we propose a new composite supercapacitor that comprises an integrated cell with high-power- and high-energy-related electrode materials. The composite electrochemical double-layer capacitor (EDLC) is the equivalent circuit of a high-power EDLC of power P1 and energy E1 and a high-energy EDLC of power P2 and energy E2 connected in parallel. A methodology is proposed and validated in this study for the design of an application-specific composite supercapacitor of power P and energy E with P1/E1>P/E>P2/E2. The methodology was tested successfully in medium- and large-sized application-specific composite supercapacitors, which were fabricated in the form of pouch cells using an organic electrolyte. The application-specific composite supercapacitors offered weight reductions of 40-60% compared with supercapacitors based on the high-power- or on high-energy-related electrode materials only.