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Title: Impurity Effects on Charging Mechanism and Energy Storage of Nanoporous Supercapacitors

Abstract

Room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) have been widely used as electrolytes to enhance the capacitive performance of electrochemical capacitors also known as supercapacitors. Whereas impurities are ubiquitous in RTILs (e.g., water, alkali salts, and organic solvents), little is known about their influences on the electrochemical behavior of electrochemical devices. In this work, we investigate different impurities in RTILs within the micropores of carbon electrodes via the classical density functional theory (CDFT). We find that under certain conditions impurities can significantly change the charging behavior of electric double layers and the shape of differential capacitance curves even at very low concentrations. More interestingly, an impurity with a strong affinity to the nanopore can increase the energy density beyond a critical charging potential. As a result, our theoretical predictions provide further understanding of how impurity in RTILs affects the performance of supercapacitors.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. East China Univ. of Science and Technology, Shanghai (People's Republic of China)
  2. Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport Center (FIRST)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1399237
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Physical Chemistry. C
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 121; Journal Issue: 26; Journal ID: ISSN 1932-7447
Publisher:
American Chemical Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; 25 ENERGY STORAGE

Citation Formats

Lian, Cheng, Liu, Kun, Liu, Honglai, and Wu, Jianzhong. Impurity Effects on Charging Mechanism and Energy Storage of Nanoporous Supercapacitors. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b04869.
Lian, Cheng, Liu, Kun, Liu, Honglai, & Wu, Jianzhong. Impurity Effects on Charging Mechanism and Energy Storage of Nanoporous Supercapacitors. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b04869
Lian, Cheng, Liu, Kun, Liu, Honglai, and Wu, Jianzhong. 2017. "Impurity Effects on Charging Mechanism and Energy Storage of Nanoporous Supercapacitors". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b04869. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1399237.
@article{osti_1399237,
title = {Impurity Effects on Charging Mechanism and Energy Storage of Nanoporous Supercapacitors},
author = {Lian, Cheng and Liu, Kun and Liu, Honglai and Wu, Jianzhong},
abstractNote = {Room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) have been widely used as electrolytes to enhance the capacitive performance of electrochemical capacitors also known as supercapacitors. Whereas impurities are ubiquitous in RTILs (e.g., water, alkali salts, and organic solvents), little is known about their influences on the electrochemical behavior of electrochemical devices. In this work, we investigate different impurities in RTILs within the micropores of carbon electrodes via the classical density functional theory (CDFT). We find that under certain conditions impurities can significantly change the charging behavior of electric double layers and the shape of differential capacitance curves even at very low concentrations. More interestingly, an impurity with a strong affinity to the nanopore can increase the energy density beyond a critical charging potential. As a result, our theoretical predictions provide further understanding of how impurity in RTILs affects the performance of supercapacitors.},
doi = {10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b04869},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1399237}, journal = {Journal of Physical Chemistry. C},
issn = {1932-7447},
number = 26,
volume = 121,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jun 08 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Thu Jun 08 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
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Cited by: 29 works
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Works referenced in this record:

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Design of Supercapacitor Electrodes Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations
journal, January 2018


Ultrahigh energy density of a N, O codoped carbon nanosphere based all-solid-state symmetric supercapacitor
journal, January 2019


Water dissolution in ionic liquids between charged surfaces: effects of electric polarization and electrostatic correlation
journal, January 2018


Study of a water-graphene capacitor with molecular density functional theory
journal, September 2019


A first-principles roadmap and limits to design efficient supercapacitor electrode materials
journal, January 2019