Publication date: 3rd July 2020
Photo-supercapacitors (PSCs) combine functions of energy harvesting and storage in a single device [1,2], and in this study, a new architecture for a PSC is designed and implemented. Cadmium sulfide (CdS) quantum dots (QDs)/hibiscus (hb) dye co-sensitized TiO2 is used as the solar cell. Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxypyrrole) (PEDOP)@manganese dioxide (MnO2) is employed as the counter electrode (CE) for the solar cell, and also as the electrodes for the symmetric supercapacitor. The two ends of a long flat current collector support two spatially separated PEDOP@MnO2 coatings, which serve as the CEs for the TiO2/hb/CdS photoanode and yet another PEDOP@MnO2 electrode in sandwich configurations. In this cell, under 1 sun (100 mW cm-2) illumination, the TiO2/hb/CdS photoanode undergoes charge separation and by channeling the photocurrent to the PEDOP@MnO2 electrodes, the symmetric cell part is charged to a voltage of 0.72 V. The PSC delivers a specific capacitance of 183 F g-1, an energy density of 13.2 Wh kg-1 and a power density of 360 W kg-1 at a discharge current density of 1 A g-1. During the self-discharge process, PEDOP@MnO2 based PSC retains a voltage of 0.72 V upto 500 s and maintains a stable voltage of 0.5 V thereafter. The TiO2/hb/CdS photoanode with the PEDOP@MnO2 CE in an aqueous polysulfide-silica gel electrolyte delivers a power conversion efficiency of 6.11%. This demonstration of a novel PSC opens up opportunities to develop new architectures for efficiently combining energy conversion and storage.
[1] Ng, C.H.; Lim, H.N.; Hayase, S.; Harrison, I.; Pandikumar, A.; Huang, N.M. Potential Active Materials for Photo-supercapacitor: a Review. J. Power Sources 2015, 296, 169-185.
[2] Meng, H.; Pang, S.; Cui, G. 2019. Photo‐Supercapacitors Based on Third‐Generation Solar Cells. ChemSusChem 2019, 12, 3431-3447.