Electrochemical capacitors, also called supercapacitors, store energy using either ion adsorption (electrochemical double layer capacitors) or fast surface redox reactions (pseudo-capacitors). They can complement or replace batteries in electrical energy storage and harvesting applications, when high power delivery or uptake is needed. A notable improvement in performance has been achieved through recent advances in understanding charge storage mechanisms and the development of advanced nanostructured materials. The discovery that ion desolvation occurs in pores smaller than the solvated ions has led to higher capacitance for electrochemical double layer capacitors using carbon electrodes with subnanometre pores, and opened the door to designing high-energy density devices using a variety of electrolytes. Combination of pseudo-capacitive nanomaterials, including oxides, nitrides and polymers, with the latest generation of nanostructured lithium electrodes has brought the energy density of electrochemical capacitors closer to that of batteries. The use of carbon nanotubes has further advanced micro-electrochemical capacitors, enabling flexible and adaptable devices to be made. Mathematical modelling and simulation will be the key to success in designing tomorrow's high-energy and high-power devices.

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02417326/document

Materials for electrochemical capacitors

In this critical review, metal oxides-based materials for electrochemical supercapacitor (ES) electrodes are reviewed in detail together with a brief review of carbon materials and conducting polymers. Their advantages, disadvantages, and performance in ES electrodes are discussed through extensive analysis of the literature, and new trends in material development are also reviewed. Two important future research directions are indicated and summarized, based on results published in the literature: the development of composite and nanostructured ES materials to overcome the major challenge posed by the low energy density of ES (476 references).

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A review of electrode materials for electrochemical supercapacitors

This critical review will be of interest to the experts in porous solids (including catalysis), but also solid state chemists and physicists. It presents the state-of-the-art on hybrid porous solids, their advantages, their new routes of synthesis, the structural concepts useful for their ‘design’, aiming at reaching very large pores. Their dynamic properties and the possibility of predicting their structure are described. The large tunability of the pore size leads to unprecedented properties and applications. They concern adsorption of species, storage and delivery and the physical properties of the dense phases. (323 references)

Hybrid porous solids: past, present, future

[Liu, Chang; Li, Feng; Ma, Lai-Peng; Cheng, Hui-Ming] Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Met Res, Shenyang Natl Lab Mat Sci, Shenyang 110016, Peoples R China.;Cheng, HM (reprint author), Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Met Res, Shenyang Natl Lab Mat Sci, 72 Wenhua Rd, Shenyang 110016, Peoples R China;cheng@imr.ac.cn

Advanced Materials for Energy Storage

A comprehensive review on PEM water electrolysis

Magnetic refrigeration, an emerging new technology for cooling and gas liquefaction, needs magnetic materials with specific thermomagnetic behavior. Depending on the thermodynamic cycle selected, the isothermal magnetic entropy change or the adiabatic temperature change upon field application needs to be a preselected function of temperature. To obtain these properties, most designers rely on calorimetry, an expensive and time consuming technique. The present article describes that, classical magnetic measurements, when evaluated within the framework of the Landau theory for the second order phase transition or the thermodynamics in magnetic fields, are able to provide the preliminary information needed for the design of magnetic refrigerators. After reviewing the theory, experimental results on ferromagnetic gadolinium (Gd) and helimagnetic dysprosium (Dy) are analyzed and compared to direct experimental results as well as to those obtained using the molecular field model. The results demonstrate the reproducibility of entropy calculations and the good agreement between the experimental and the calculated specific heat anomalies. While the molecular field theory which assumes simple ferromagnetic order clearly fails for helimagnetic dysprosium, an analysis of the experimental data based on the Landau theory gives reliable results. Besides, the field and temperature dependencies of the isothermal magnetic entropy change allows one to characterize the magnetic structure (nature of the magnetic order) of the sample. Furthermore, magnetic measurements define the useful field range and provide information on transitions that influence the thermal behavior and magnetic losses.

Magnetic measurements: A powerful tool in magnetic refrigerator design

Challenges for renewable hydrogen production from biomass

Direct adiabatic temperature change as well as magnetic measurements were carried out on two different samples of ${\mathrm{Gd}}_{5}{\mathrm{Si}}_{2}{\mathrm{Ge}}_{2}$ composition for which calculations predicted a ``giant'' magnetocaloric effect (MCE). While magnetic measurements well reproduce published values, serving the basis for the predictions, direct adiabatic temperature change measurements show a significantly smaller MCE. The discrepancy can be interpreted on the basis of the thermodynamics of first order magnetic transitions.

Richard Chahine

Papers

Magnetic measurements: A powerful tool in magnetic refrigerator design

Challenges for renewable hydrogen production from biomass

Direct Measurement of the “Giant” Adiabatic Temperature Change in Gd 5 Si 2 Ge 2

Low-pressure adsorption storage of hydrogen

Storage of hydrogen by physisorption on carbon and nanostructured materials