Turbocharged supercapacitors from new ionic liquids

Publication by Laboratoire de chimie, , on August 2019. A new article describes the discovery of a new class of electrolytes, which can improve energy storage efficiency in supercapacitors. A team of scientists from US, France, UK and Australia has worked out a way to improve energy storage devices called supercapacitors, by designing a new class of ionic liquids based on common, non-toxic chemicals. The paper explains why these new ionic liquids, are better electrolytes than current materials and can improve supercapacitors. Currently, aqueous and organic electrolytes are used, but more recently, researchers and manufacturers have been testing ionic liquids instead to boost performance. Although ionic liquids are salts, at room temperature they are surprisingly not crystalline solids: as their name suggests they are in fact liquids. This gives ionic liquids numerous advantages over conventional electrolytes because they are stable, non-flammable, and often much more environmentally friendly.