Sustainable supercapacitor with natural rubber and sodium salt-based solid polymer electrolyte and reduced graphene oxide electrodes

Balakrishnan, N; Perera, K S; Vidanapathirana, K P; Adams, L J

Abstract

In recent years, natural polymers have received tremendous attention due to the latest advances in green technology for a sustainable future. Herein, solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) based on 49% methyl-grafted natural rubber (MG49-NR) and sodium trifluoromethanesulfonate (Na(CF3SO3) – NaTF) salt were prepared and characterized to optimize their performance [1]. The composition MG49-NR: NaTF = 1:0.5 (by weight) shows the highest room temperature conductivity (σ_RT) of 7.52 10-4 S cm-1. This optimized electrolyte is purely an ionic conductor with an activation energy (Ea) of 0.29 eV. The optimized electrolyte was used to fabricate double-layer capacitors by sandwiching it between two identical reduced graphene oxide (rGO) electrodes. The fabricated double-layer capacitors show a maximum single electrode specific capacitance (Csc) of 42.5 F g-1 from the cyclic voltammetry (CV) test. Moreover, the charge storage mechanism utterly takes place via non-faradaic reactions which is evidenced by cyclic voltammograms. Furthermore, the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) test shows the capacitive features are dominant at low frequencies. Performance of the double-layer capacitor during 10,000 charge and discharge cycles at a constant current density of 0.05 A g-1 shows a fast drop of single electrode specific discharge capacitance (Csd) at the beginning, but it started to saturate after the 5,000th cycle proving the good stability of the supercapacitor. These findings are relevant to expanding the functionalities of supercapacitors having natural rubber-based SPEs in green technologies.

Reference
[1] K. S. Perera, K. P. Vidanapathirana, L. J. Adams, C. S. Hawes, N. Balakrishnan, Symmetric doublelayer capacitor with natural rubber and sodium salt-based solid polymer electrolyte and reduced graphene oxide electrodes, Journal of Energy Storage, 97, 112683 (2024).

Citation

Balakrishnan, N., Perera, K. S., Vidanapathirana, K. P., & Adams, L. J. (2025, May). Sustainable supercapacitor with natural rubber and sodium salt-based solid polymer electrolyte and reduced graphene oxide electrodes. Poster presented at E-MRS 2025 Spring Meeting, Strasbourg

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: E-MRS 2025 Spring Meeting
• Start Date: May 26, 2025
• End Date: May 30, 2025
• Acceptance Date: Mar 5, 2025
• Online Publication Date: May 12, 2025
• Publication Date: May 26, 2025
• Deposit Date: Jun 5, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: E-MRS 2025 Spring Meeting Abstract Book
• ISBN: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/q5n0q2zuvcfzm97ei2axi/Program_EMRS_2025_DEF.pdf?rlkey=gfu2cfosm3u9xcuxzmfb7qwik&e=1&dl=0
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/1276372