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Supercapacitor
Supercapacitor
physical formats from small surface mount components to size of a cylindrical can.
It consists of two electrode immersed in an electrolyte as shown in the Fig (1)
[1].
I.
When the electrodes are charged electrically, the ions in the electrolyte tend to
move to the oppositely charged electrode balancing the excess charge at the carbon
electrode. The electrode are made of high surface area, porous material having
pores of diameter nanometer (nm),preferably carbon. The extremely small pore gives
a very large active internal surface, in the order of 1000square meters per
gram.[3] Thus across the phase boundary between carbon and electrolyte there are
two layers of excess charge of opposite polarity .This is called Electrochemical
Double Layer [1]. The capacitance is dependent on the material of electrode such
as area, pore size and pore size distribution. Energy stored is purely static
rather than electrochemical as in battery And charging and discharging is purely
dependent of movement of ions and capacitance is stored in whole Farads (F),
instead of mere microfarads (uF)[1].
of supercapacitor energy density is low but power density is high. These parameters
are calculated in terms of energy or power per unit volume or per unit weight. Fig
4 shows graph of energy density vs power density in batteries and supercapacitors
with other power devices [4].
Fig 3 .Schematic of double layer Super capacitor [2] As shown in the ions displace
in forming the double layer in the pores are transferred between electrodes by
diffusion through electrolyte. The energy and charge stored in super capacitors
are 1/2CV 2 and CV, respectively.The capacitance is dependent on characteristics of
electrode and can be written as C/g= (F/cm^2) act* (cm^2/g) act where surface area
referred to is the active area in the pores on which the double layer is
formed[2]. The cell voltage of super capacitor is dependent on the electrolyte
used .For aqueous electrolytes the cell voltage is 1V,because water gets decomposed
at higher voltages and for organic electrolytes such as potassium hydroxide(KOH)or
sulphuric acid(H2SO4),the voltage is 3-3.5 V. For getting high voltage output the
capacitors can be connected in series but it decreases the capacitance so in order
to maintain the capacitance with high voltage requires an array i.e.
Series/parallel array [2, 3] III. COMPARISON BETWEEN SUPERCAPACITORS AND
BATTERIES
Table: The following table gives a brief summary of some critical properties of
each technology [5].
Property
Supercapacitors
Capacitors
Micro-Fuel Cells
Batteries
30,000 to >100,000 1500 to 150 50,000 hrs cycles 10,000 1500 hrs cycles 1 to 2
grams grams
0.01 to 103 0.25 to 0.001 to 0.005 to kW/kg 104 0.1 0.4 kW/kg kW/kg kW/kg 0.05 to
10 0.01 to 300 to 8 to 600 Wh/kg 0.05 3000 Wh/kg Wh/kg Wh/kg 0.1 to 100 A 0.1 to
150 mA / 0.5 to 2.0 1000 A cm2 A
Energy Density
Pulse Load
VII. CONCLUSION This new source of electricity will replace the batteries in all
the applications of telecommunications, hybrid cars and others. This is because of
its high energy storage capacity, long life, high power and good reliability and
robustness as compared to the batteries. [7] Because of their flexibility, however,
supercapacitors can be adapted to serve in roles for which electrochemical
batteries are not as well suited. Also, supercapacitors have some intrinsic
characteristics that make them ideally suited to specialized roles and applications
that complement the strengths of batteries. In particular, supercapacitors have
great potential for applications that require a combination of high power, short
charging time, high cycling stability, and long shelf life. That is why
supercapacitor and battery work together, by merging a supercapacitor and a battery
together - like a "Hybrid Battery" it will be possible for supercapcitors to
replace the battery as we know it today. Supercapacitors need batteries to store
the energy and are basically used as a buffer between the battery and the device.
Supercapacitors can be charged and discharged hundreds of thousands of times where
a battery cannot do that. Soon the price point will be where most every electronic
device will use them as a hybrid battery. It will be the new super battery. [9]
REFERENCES
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
http://www.epcos.com/inf/20/35/ds/tecchnology.pdf
http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=105 0&context=itsdavis
http://www.skeletontechnologies.com/docs/pdf/SuPCaP_web.pdf
http://a330.g.akamai.net/7/330/2540/20030102222605/ww w.edn.com/contents/images /
268379.pdf http://www.capxx.com/resources/reviews/strge_cmprsn.htm
http://electrochem.cwru.edu/ed/encycl/art-c03-elchemcap.htm
http://www.advancedautobat.com/Ultracapacitor/industry.ht ml
http://www.illinoiscapacitor.com/pdf/Papers/supercapacitor s.pdf
http://www.supercapacitors.org/