Researchers from the University of Bialystok (Poland), the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and colleagues have achieved the highest specific capacitance value reported of 638 F g⁻¹ in aqueous acidic solutions by combining spherical carbon nanostructures with covalent triazine-based frameworks. An open-access paper on their study is published in Scientific Reports.

ovalent triazine-based frameworks have attracted much interest recently due to their high surface area and excellent thermal and electrochemical stabilities. This study shows that covalently immobilizing triazine-based structures on spherical carbon nanostructures results in the organization of micro- and mesopores in a three-dimensional manner.

… The material exhibits a large surface area, a high content of micropores, a high content of graphitic N, and N-sites with basicity and semi-crystalline character. Thanks to the high structural organization and reproducibility, and remarkably high specific capacitance, these systems are promising materials for use in electrochemistry. For the first time, hybrid systems containing triazine-based frameworks and carbon nano-onions were used as electrodes for supercapacitors.

—Hryniewicka et al.

Supercapacitors have high potential because they can charge much faster than batteries—within seconds to fractions of a second, according to Luis Echegoyen, Ph.D., professor emeritus at The University of Texas at El Paso. However, current supercapacitors can only store a low amount of energy, which limits their range of potential applications. If supercapacitors could be designed to store more energy, they would be physically lighter and charge much faster than batteries, which would have a significant commercial impact.

The new supercapacitor designed by Echegoyen and Marta Plonska-Brzezinska, Ph.D., of the Medical University of Bialystok, achieved a record level of storage, or capacitance, using a material with a carbon “nano-onion” core structure, which creates multiple pores that allow storage of a greater volume of energy.

Resources

• Hryniewicka, A., Breczko, J., Siemiaszko, G. et al. “Three-dimensional organization of pyrrolo[3,2-b]pyrrole-based triazine framework using nanostructural spherical carbon: enhancing electrochemical performance of materials for supercapacitors.” Sci Rep 13, 10737 doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-37708-7