Recent Studies on Supercapacitors with Next-Generation Structures
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micromachines Review Recent Studies on Supercapacitors with Next-Generation Structures Juho Sung and Changhwan Shin * Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Korea; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +82-31-290-7694 Received: 27 November 2020; Accepted: 16 December 2020; Published: 18 December 2020 Abstract: Supercapacitors have shown great potential as a possible solution to the increasing global demand for next-generation energy storage systems. Charge repositioning is based on physical or chemical mechanisms. There are three types of supercapacitors—the electrochemical double layer, the pseudocapacitor, and a hybrid of both. Each type is further subdivided according to the material used. Herein, a detailed overview of the working mechanism as well as a new method for capacitance enhancement are presented. Keywords: supercapacitor; electrical double layer capacitor; EDLC; negative capacitance; energy storage system; pseudocapacitor; micropores; nanopores; ultracapacitor; Helmholtz model 1. Introduction The Fourth Industrial Revolution, which facilitates the emergence of a hyper-connected society, is the basis for data processing between people and things as well as things and things. The essence anchored in a host of electronic devices highlights the energy consumption problem to address the ever-increasing energy demand. However, the challenge confronted (based on expenditure) is proving hard to overcome. Self-powered devices are mostly based on lithium-ion batteries, which were proposed three decades ago. They demonstrate superior properties as compared to energy storage systems (ESSs) based on other materials with the highest energy storage capacity; however, the world no longer refers to them as “perfect batteries”. Moreover, the progress of battery technology would be considered as a stumbling block to the development of electrically powered industry in some parts of the world. Insufficient cycles to deliver energy owing to membrane shrinkage by shutdown, power density, and thermal stability are now more noteworthy aspects in particular fields. Most importantly, the energy storage capacity, which is considered a strength, is no longer increasing. The major frameworks to solve these issues are classified as follows: (1) ultra-low-power devices based on energy efficiency with various techniques to overcome the theoretical limit of energy consumption efficiency with constant energy capability [1–4] and (2) focusing on developing the next generation of ESSs to complement lithium-ion batteries that have reached their innovation limit in a specific area [5–7]. There are various requirements to implement these next-generation ESSs, but to date some systems to satisfy certain conditions remain nonexistent [8]. Of these, capacitors using the extreme surface area and distance from the electrode to the charged ions layer on the electrolyte have particularly attracted attention owing to their superior specific power. Capacitors with superior characteristics (called supercapacitors), which are unavailable in conventional batteries, exhibit excellent functionality in many areas, including power density, charge/discharge cycles, operation over a wide temperature range, and reliability, which have been noted as limitations of batteries [8–13]. However, based on energy density, it is evident that supercapacitors must be studied intrinsically. 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