Hybrid Structural Power Composites: Exploring Opportunities and Challenges
Topic(s) : Special Sessions
Co-authors :
Emily CHENG (UNITED KINGDOM), Karl BOUTON , Sang NGUYEN (UNITED KINGDOM), Emile GREENHALGH (UNITED KINGDOM), Dan ZENKERT (SWEDEN), Milo S. P. SHAFFER (UNITED KINGDOM), Anthony KUCERNAK (UNITED KINGDOM), Göran LINDBERGHAbstract :
Structural power composites are emerging as a ground-breaking material technology in offering both mechanical and electrochemical functions, since they act as a structural load bearer whilst presenting the ability to deliver electrical energy. The realization of multifunctional materials can effectively reduce the supplementary weight associated with conventional energy storage devices, and subsequently prompt the acceleration of electrification of transportation. Among all such multifunctional materials, structural supercapacitors and structural batteries have become particularly promising candidates. The former offers high cyclability as well as high power density, while the latter satisfies applications in which high energy density is required [1]. Meanwhile, hybrid supercapacitor, in which one of the electrostatic surface adsorption electrodes in supercapacitor is substituted with an electrode that stores energy at the interface by faradaic processes, grants the possibility to fulfill the demand for higher energy density while still maintaining satisfactory power supply and stability.
In this work, a new laminated embodiment of structural supercapacitor is manufactured. It is composed of two symmetric electrodes made of spread tow carbon fibre fabric reinforced with high specific surface area carbon aerogel (CAG/CF) [2], which are separated by a ceramic-reinforced polyester separator together with a thin glass veil, as demonstrated in Figure 1. Before encapsulating, the constituents are vacuum-infiltrated with a nano-porous structural battery electrolyte developed by Zenkert et al. at KTH [3], which is a mixture of 50% wt Bisphenol A dimethacrylate monomers (with AIBN as the polymerization initiator for the structural battery electrolyte, 1% wt of the monomer mass) and 50% wt liquid electrolyte (1M LiTFSi in EC:PC (1:1) w/w), resulting a device that can provide mechanical support but also presents electrical capacitance. The electrochemical characteristics and the interfacial morphology of the obtained multifunctional devices are examined with respect to the equivalent monofunctional devices that incorporate pure liquid electrolyte. This study provides insights into the challenges encountered and potential solutions to enable optimised introduction of a bi-continuous structural electrolyte into hierarchical carbon aerogel-reinforced carbon fibre electrodes. Such insights can facilitate the prospective elaboration into a new hybrid structural power composite.
In this work, a new laminated embodiment of structural supercapacitor is manufactured. It is composed of two symmetric electrodes made of spread tow carbon fibre fabric reinforced with high specific surface area carbon aerogel (CAG/CF) [2], which are separated by a ceramic-reinforced polyester separator together with a thin glass veil, as demonstrated in Figure 1. Before encapsulating, the constituents are vacuum-infiltrated with a nano-porous structural battery electrolyte developed by Zenkert et al. at KTH [3], which is a mixture of 50% wt Bisphenol A dimethacrylate monomers (with AIBN as the polymerization initiator for the structural battery electrolyte, 1% wt of the monomer mass) and 50% wt liquid electrolyte (1M LiTFSi in EC:PC (1:1) w/w), resulting a device that can provide mechanical support but also presents electrical capacitance. The electrochemical characteristics and the interfacial morphology of the obtained multifunctional devices are examined with respect to the equivalent monofunctional devices that incorporate pure liquid electrolyte. This study provides insights into the challenges encountered and potential solutions to enable optimised introduction of a bi-continuous structural electrolyte into hierarchical carbon aerogel-reinforced carbon fibre electrodes. Such insights can facilitate the prospective elaboration into a new hybrid structural power composite.