Nanostructured materials for energy storage devices

Abstract

The present work describes the background of electrochemical energy storage devices, mainly supercapacitors, which have a potential to act as a buffer for power and energy supply. High power supercapacitors are able to provide the load leveling of batteries and fuel cells during starting, accelerating, hill climbing and braking. They are also important in reducing the cycling of batteries leading to longer lifetime in terms of energy storage and delivery during fast transient operations such as braking (storage) or start-up or acceleration (supply). newlineThe focus of the work is mainly on the development of cost effective nanostructured materials for an electrode of the supercapacitors. The selection of nanostructured materials is made based on its electrical conductivity, economically viability, abundance and environment friendliness. The used criterion leads to the transition metal oxides such as oxides of Zn, Mn, Cu, and V. These oxides are prepared using co-precipitation method which is simple and economical. Further, better control over the particle size can be achieved using co-precipitation method. An activated charcoal materials based nanocomposite is formed with prepared nanostructured metal oxide to obtain good nanocomposite electrodes for supercapacitors. All the prepared materials are characterized to confirm the desired phase formation, their electrochemical property, morphological investigation and electronic properties using several characterization techniques. These techniques are synchrotron X-ray diffraction (SXRD), Fourier transform infra red spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPES). The nanostructured materials have been successfully prepared using the chosen route which has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction. The particle size of the prepared nanopowder of oxides on Zn, Cu, Mn, and V are 25.15, 18.45, 27.64 and 25.59 nm respectively.Several supercapacitors with different electrolytes.