All-Solid Supercapacitors for Aerospace and Aircraft applications

Abstract

Energy storage technology is one of the important factors in harvesting electrical energy. With the global trend of decarbonized energy concern next generation of Aircraft systems require decentralized power supplies to relieve the engine and increase efficiency. Being for the aerospace applications, lightweight power storage supercapacitors (SCs) as high-power devices, are suitable for powering satellites when they are on the dark side of the raceway and for use on board of e-aircrafts and can be integrated into systems and structures. Maintenance-free self-sufficient systems by means of developing new wireless sensors to facilitate the constant controlling and monitoring of European aircrafts, which is expected to bring both cost and weight down. Therefore, the design and development of new all-solid supercapacitor devices to meet global needs has become one of the most important topics in research field today [1,2]. Supercapacitors are mainly composed of electrodes, current collectors, separator and electrolytes, among which electrode and electrolyte are the main components to storing and releasing energy [3]. The properties of electrode and electrolyte materials determine the overall device performance. Additionally, the choice of electrolyte is the key to safe and high-performance supercapacitor devices for aerospace and aircraft applications [4]. In this work, the optimization and fabrication of all-solid supercapacitor devices using commercial carbon electrodes and our own lab developed high voltage polymer matrix electrolytes (PMEs) is reported. All optimizations of the SC device performance have been carried out in CR2032 coin cell form using the polymer such as PPC, PVDF-HFS and PC embedded [EMIM][TFSI] ionic liquid (IL) as polymer matrix electrolytes. It has been observed that suitable combination of polymer matrix with IL- electrolytes exhibited higher supercapacitive performance by means of higher capacitance, higher energy-power density and energy efficiency. Based on our current research, the combination of [EMIM][TFSI]: PPC = 1 electrolyte showed excellent performance delivering specific capacitance of 13.9 F/g, energy density of 12.1 Wh/kg with >90% capacitance retention over 7000 cycles at a higher voltage of 2.5 V compared to pure [EMIM][TFSI] ionic liquid electrolyte and [EMIM][TFSI]:PVDF-HFS = 1 + 30 wt% PC electrolyte. The overall all-solid supercapacitor studies determine their potential for component integrated energy storage from renewable energy sources for future aerospace and aircraft applications. References 1. Dixit, M. et al. Academic Press, 2023. 259-282 2. Cabana, J. et al. ACS Energy Lett. 2023, 8, 740−747 3. A. Ray, D. Korkut, B. Saruhan, Nanomaterials 10, 1768 (2020) 4. A. Ray, J. Roth, B. Saruhan, Molecules 27, 329 (2022)