A Low-Cost Zn-Based Aqueous Supercapacitor with High Energy Density

Liang He, Yu Liu, Chunyang Li, Dezhi Yang, Weigang Wang, Wenqi Yan, Weibin Zhou, Zhixian Wu, Lili Wang, Qinghong Huang, Yusong Zhu, Yuhui Chen, Lijun Fu, Xianhua Hou, Yuping Wu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

109 Scopus citations

Abstract

Low-cost supercapacitors with high energy densities have attracted great research attention, since it would broaden the application of capacitors. Increasing the capacitance is one principle to obtain a high energy density of a supercapacitor. In this study, a low cost aqueous Zn-based hybrid supercapacitor (AZHS) with high energy density is achieved using an actived carbon derived from corncob (denoted as ACC) as the positive electrode, zinc metal as the negative electrode, and the 2 M ZnSO4 electrolyte. The actived carbon is prepared with a facile calcination-activation process, and it exhibits high specific surface area (2619 m2 g-1). Though without extra heteroatom doping, ACC demonstrates a superb specific capacitance in acidic, alkaline and neutral electrolytes. The assembled AZHS exhibits a high energy density of 94 W h kg-1 at 68 W kg-1 in a potential window of 0.2-1.8 V, and an excellent cycle stability with only 1.8% capacitance decay is obtained after 10 000 cycles at 5 A g-1. These results suggest that a low cost supercapacitor with high energy density can be achieved by a hybrid system design using electrodes with high capacitance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5835-5842
Number of pages8
JournalACS Applied Energy Materials
Volume2
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 26 Aug 2019

Keywords

  • aqueous hybrid supercapacitors
  • corncob-derived carbon
  • energy density
  • hierarchical porous structure
  • zinc

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