Surface Functionalization of Electrodes and Synthesis of Dual-Phase Solid Electrolytes for Structural Supercapacitors

Feng Huang; Yang Zhou; Zhao Sha; Shuhua Peng; Wenkai Chang; Xinying Cheng; Jin Zhang; Sonya A Brown; Zhaojun Han; Chun-Hui Wang

doi:10.1021/acsami.2c06303

Surface Functionalization of Electrodes and Synthesis of Dual-Phase Solid Electrolytes for Structural Supercapacitors

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022 Jul 13;14(27):30857-30871. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c06303. Epub 2022 Jun 27.

Authors

Feng Huang¹, Yang Zhou¹, Zhao Sha¹, Shuhua Peng¹, Wenkai Chang¹, Xinying Cheng¹, Jin Zhang¹, Sonya A Brown¹, Zhaojun Han^{1

2

3}, Chun-Hui Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
² CSIRO Manufacturing, 36 Bradfield Road, Lindfield, NSW 2070, Australia.
³ School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.

PMID: 35761422
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c06303

Abstract

The interface between structural electrodes and solid electrolytes plays a key role in the electrical-mechanical properties of energy storage structures. Herein, we present a surface functionalization method to improve the ion conduction efficiency at the interface between a structural electrode and a solid electrolyte that consists of a bi-continuous network of epoxy and ionic liquid (IL). Composite supercapacitors made with this electrolyte and carbon fiber (CF) electrodes coated with manganese dioxide (MnO₂) demonstrate that treating the electrodes with the silane can increase the areal capacitance by 300% without degrading the tensile strength. The dual-phase electrolyte containing 40 wt % IL and 60 wt % epoxy exhibits the highest multifunctional performance, measured by the product of stiffness and ionic conductivity. The outstanding mechanical and energy storage properties demonstrate that the silane treatment of MnO₂-coated CF fabric structural electrodes is a promising method for future high-performance structural composite supercapacitors.

Keywords: multifunctional composites; silane treatment; solid-state polymer electrolyte; structural composite supercapacitor; structural energy storage devices.