Nanoscale Advances View Article Online REVIEW View Journal | View Issue Progress in supercapacitors: roles of two dimensional nanotubular materials Cite this: Nanoscale Adv., 2020, 2,70 Pritam Kumar Panda, a Anton Grigoriev, a Yogendra Kumar Mishra b and Rajeev Ahuja *c Overcoming the global energy crisis due to vast economic expansion with the advent of human reliance on energy-consuming labor-saving devices necessitates the demand for next-generation technologies in the form of cleaner energy storage devices. The technology accelerates with the pace of developing energy storage devices to meet the requirements wherever an unanticipated burst of power is indeed needed in a very short time. Supercapacitors are predicted to be future power vehicles because they promise faster Received 16th May 2019 charging times and do not rely on rare elements such as lithium. At the same time, they are key Accepted 28th October 2019 nanoscale device elements for high-frequency noise filtering with the capability of storing and releasing DOI: 10.1039/c9na00307j energy by electrostatic interactions between the ions in the electrolyte and the charge accumulated at the active electrode during the charge/discharge process. There have been several developments to Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. rsc.li/nanoscale-advances aDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, SE-75120, cDepartment of Materials and Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), SE- Uppsala, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected] 10044, Stockholm, Sweden bMads Clausen Institute, NanoSYD, University of Southern Denmark, Alsion 2, DK- 6400, Denmark. E-mail: [email protected] Pritam Kumar Panda is Dr Anton Grigoriev is This article is licensed under a pursuing a Ph.D. in the Depart- a researcher and member of the ment of Physics and Astronomy, Condensed Matter Theory group Uppsala University, Sweden (CMT) and Uppsala University under the supervision of Prof. UniMolecular Electronics Centre Open Access Article. Published on 31 October 2019. Downloaded 09/28/2021 12:37:52. Rajeev Ahuja and Priv.-Doz. Dr (U3MEC). His primary research habil. Yogendra Kumar Mishra area focuses on surface physics, from Mads Clausen Institute, surface chemistry and electron NanoSYD, University of transport properties of nano- Southern Denmark, Sønderborg, systems. He uses computer Denmark. He has a double simulations to study surface Master's in Bioinformatics from structures, for understanding Utkal University & D.Y. Patil molecular adsorption and inter- University in 2014 and 2016 respectively. He has worked as molecular interactions. The major application area considered is a junior research fellow in the Infection Biology lab, KIIT Univer- molecular electronics. He is an expert in modelling of electron sity, India and later joined as a graduate scientist in the Division of transport in metal–molecule–metal systems. Pediatric Haematology and Oncology, University of Freiburg, Germany. He has published more than 30 papers including many in top ranked journals, such as Leukemia (Nature), Nanomedicine, Scientic Reports (Nature), Toxicological Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering C, Gut Pathogens (BMC), etc. and also serves as a referee for various reputed journals. His expertise includes bioinformatics, computational biology, biophysics, 2D material modelling of electron transport in nanoscale devices, and computational modelling of bio-nanoparticles. His primary topic of research is computational modelling of 2D materials for bio- sensing applications. 70 | Nanoscale Adv., 2020, 2,70–108 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2020 View Article Online Review Nanoscale Advances increase the functionality of electrodes or finding a new electrolyte for higher energy density, but this field is still open to witness the developments in reliable materials-based energy technologies. Nanoscale materials have emerged as promising candidates for the electrode choice, especially in 2D sheet and folded tubular network forms. Due to their unique hierarchical architecture, excellent electrical and mechanical properties, and high specific surface area, nanotubular networks have been widely investigated as efficient electrode materials in supercapacitors, while maintaining their inherent characteristics of high power and long cycling life. In this review, we briefly present the evolution, classification, functionality, and application of supercapacitors from the viewpoint of nanostructured materials to apprehend the mechanism and construction of advanced supercapacitors for next-generation storage devices. Introduction concerns in the supercapacitor industry to date and to over- come these aforementioned problems, various critical State-of-the-art technology has revolutionized the energy approaches have been explored as follows: (a) developing industry on a large scale and has led to many discoveries aqueous electrolytes to reduce high cost, (b) hybrid super- thereaer. A lot has been achieved in this direction, although capacitor, solid-state supercapacitor and nonporous electrode achieving longer cycle life and high energy density is still materials production to overcome the low energy density a challenge. A primary challenge in this scientic era has been problem, and (c) introduction of novel electrode materials imposed by us (human population) due to high energy (ionic liquids) to overcome the problem of short cycle life. Above consumption and a high pollution generation rate to reduce the all, the understanding of fundamental and basic science, e.g., energy consumption that led many researchers to develop effi- surface chemistry, dielectric properties, and materials proper- cient supercapacitors. The key issues, e.g., high production cost, ties, may help overcome the major challenges and the vision of low energy density, and short cycle life, have been the major achieving low-cost production, high energy density, longer cycle Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. Yogendra Kumar Mishra is Rajeev Ahuja is a full time a professor with special respon- Professor in the Department of sibilities in nanomaterials at physics and astronomy at Mads Clausen Institute, Nano- Uppsala University, Sweden, SYD, University of Southern and heads a research group of Denmark, Sønderborg, Den- 17 theoretical physicists. He is This article is licensed under a mark. Prior to moving Denmark, one of the most highly cited he was leading a scientically researchers in Sweden. In his independent group (2011–2019) research career, he has super- and Alexander von Humboldt vised 30 graduate students and Open Access Article. Published on 31 October 2019. Downloaded 09/28/2021 12:37:52. Fellow (2009–2011) at Func- 35 postdoctoral research associ- tional Nanomaterials Chair, ates. At present he has a group of Institute for Material Science, 12 people, which include 5 PhD Kiel University, Kiel, Germany. In Kiel, he introduced a new students and 5 post-doctoral fellows. He has published over 825 fabrication technique, the “Flame Transport Synthesis FTS papers (citations more than 30000; H-index 80) in his research Approach”, allowing versatile nanostructuring of metal oxides and career in leading international journals. Ahuja has been awarded their 3D interconnected networks as “Flexible Ceramics”. The the Wallmark prize for 2011 by the Royal Swedish Academy of developed tetrapodal 3D shaped ZnO nanostructures by him found Sciences, Stockholm. This award is presented to young scientists by many applications in engineering and biomedical elds. The the King of Sweden. He has been awarded the Beller Lectureship sacricial nature of ZnO tetrapods enables them to be used as for the APS March Meeting, 13–17 March 2017, in New Orleans, templates for the growth of various new materials (inorganic, Louisiana. Ahuja is a member of the Royal Research Society, organic, polymer, ZIFs, MOFs, etc.) which offered a wide range of Uppsala and is on the executive board of the European High- multifunctional applications. He has published more than 150 Pressure Research Group (EHPRG). He is the editor in chief of papers (total citations >6200; H index of 44) including many in Cogent Physics (Taylor & Francis Group) and an editorial board top-ranked journals, such as Materials Today, Advanced Mate- member at Nature Scientic Reports. rials, Nature Communications, Advanced Functional Materials, Nanoscale, and many others. He is an editorial board member for several journals, e.g., Scientic Reports (Nature), Materials Today Chemistry, Nanomaterials, etc. and also serves as a referee for various prestigious journals, funding agencies, faculty promotions, etc. At NanoSYD, his main research focus is Hybrid and Smart 3D Materials for Sustainable Technologies. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2020 Nanoscale Adv., 2020, 2,70–108 | 71 View Article Online Nanoscale Advances Review life, and high efficiency can be fullled. Over the past three batteries . Researchers around the world have made strides in decades, intensive research has been carried out to meet the improving the specic capacitance of graphene-based super- demand for next-generation technologies to overcome the capacitor electrodes but they have some major drawbacks in global energy crisis with the advent of human reliance on terms of capacitance which did not meet the criteria of the À energy-consuming labor-saving devices in which super- theoretical capacitance of 550 F g 1 despite the high specic À capacitors