An Aqueous Anti-Freezing and Heat-Tolerant Symmetric Microsupercapacitor with 2.3 V Output Voltage

Symmetric aqueous microsupercapacitors (MSCs) generally show a low working voltage (<= 1 V) and narrow operating temperature window in the vicinity of 25 degrees C due to the poor temperature tolerance and instability of conventional aqueous electrolytes under high voltage. It is challenging to develop MSCs that can offer a high-voltage output (>2 V) under complex ambient temperature. In this work, a symmetric MSC is fabricated by using the anti-freezing and heat-tolerant aqueous polyacrylamide polyelectrolyte (HVTT-PAM-10.5) and carbon nanotube microelectrodes, which achieves a record high output voltage of 2.3 V and the widest operating temperature window of -40 to 100 degrees C among the aqueous MSCs reported previously. It can deliver an ultrahigh areal energy density of above 4.9 mu Wh cm(-2) at temperatures from -40 to 100 degrees C, outperforming the previous carbon-based MSCs with aqueous electrolytes at room temperature. Additionally, even after 324 000 cycles at -40 degrees C and 10 000 cycles at 100 degrees C, the MSC still retains the high capacitance retention of 92.6% and 90.4%, respectively. Impressively, the HVTT-PAM-10.5 polyelectrolyte can also be paired with other electrode materials such as CNT/polyaniline to obtain the highest energy density of 48.6 mu Wh cm(-2) among all symmetric/asymmetric MSCs with aqueous electrolytes.

Automated summary

By utilizing the anti-freezing and heat-tolerant aqueous polyacrylamide polyelectrolyte and carbon nanotube microelectrodes, a symmetric microsupercapacitor has been developed with record high output voltage and the widest operating temperature window, delivering ultra-high energy density and outperforming other aqueous MSCs. Furthermore, the MSC exhibits remarkable performance even at extremely low and high temperatures.