Scientists develop stable material for pseudocapacitors which store electrical energy by electron charge transfer

Scientists at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), Mohali, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, have developed a stable material for pseudocapacitors or supercapacitors which store electrical energy by electron charge transfer. The material can offer a low-cost scalable energy storage solution as an alternative to batteries.

Dr. Ramendra Sundar Dey and his team from INST have formulated an interesting synthetic strategy to overcome the long-standing challenges of pseudocapacitors, their cycling stability, and rate capability. Pseudocapacitors are a type of supercapacitors which store electrical energy by electron charge transfer.

The team has developed the pseudocapacitive material, a hybrid xerogel structure (a solid formed from a gel by drying with unhindered shrinkage), for the very first time. The hybrid material was fabricated by the integration of a well-known organic molecule, dopamine onto a conductive matrix, like graphene.

This class of xerogel architectures, although reported in the literature as alternatives to conventional pseudocapacitors, lack sufficient cycling stability to replace batteries in the consumer market.

Source: newsonair