Motion control of electric vehicles and prospects of supercapacitors

Novel motion control techniques for electric vehicles (EVs) on the basis of the quick torque generation in these vehicles have been developed at the Hori Laboratory. Because EVs are powered by electric motors, they have three major advantages: (i) motor torque generation is quick and accurate, (ii) a motor can be attached to each wheel, and (iii) motor torque can be estimated precisely. These advantages enable us to (i) easily realize high-performance antilock braking systems and traction control systems with minor feedback control of each wheel, (ii) control chassis motion, for example, direct yaw control, and (iii) estimate road surface condition. We have developed test vehicles and confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed methods. Recently, we have manufactured small EVs that are powered only by supercapacitors. Supercapacitors have long operating life, large current density, and are environmental friendly. Furthermore, their energy level can be estimated from their terminal voltage. Because EVs powered by supercapacitors can run for more than 20 min by charging only for 30 s, recharging EVs will not be a major problem. In the future, EVs will be recharged via contactless power transfer. Copyright © 2009 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Significant Role of Al in Ternary Layered Double Hydroxides for Enhancing Electrochemical Performance of Flexible Asymmetric Supercapacitor

The Al effect on the electrochemical properties of layered double hydroxides (LDHs) is not properly probed, although it is demonstrated to notably promote the capacitive behavior of LDHs. Herein, ternary NiCo₂Al_x layered double hydroxides with varying levels of Al stoichiometry are purposely developed, grown directly on mechanically flexible and electrically conducting carbon cloth (CC@NiCo₂Al_x‐LDH). Al plays a significant role in determining the structure, morphology, and electrochemical behavior of NiCo₂Al_x‐LDHs. At an increasing level of Al in NiCo₂Al_x‐LDHs, there is a steady evolution from 1D nanowire to 2D nanosheets. The CC@NiCo₂Al‐LDH at an appropriate level of Al and with the nanowire–nanosheet mixed morphology exhibits both significantly enhanced electrochemical performance and excellent structural stability, with about a 2.3‐fold capacitance of NiCo₂‐OH. When applied as the anode in a flexible asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC), the CC@NiCo₂Al‐LDH gives rise to a remarkable energy density of 44 Wh kg^?1 at the power density of 462 W kg^?1, together with remarkable cyclic stability with 91.2% capacitance retention over 15 000 charge–discharge cycles. The present study demonstrates a new pathway to significantly improve the electrochemical performance and stability of transition metal LDHs, which are otherwise unstable in structure and poorly performing in both rate and cycling capability.     

PREPARATION AND ELECTROCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF NANOSCALE POROUS CARBON ELECTRODE MATERIALS BASED ON RICE PLANT SOOT

Supercapacitors are a kind of novel energy storage devices with long cycle stability and high power density. Electrode materials selection is one of the key factors that affect the properties of supercapacitors. Biomass-derived electrode materials – being low cost, renewable and environmentally friendly – are therefore attracting researchers’ attention. In this work, we adopted a simple process of carbonization and activation with rice plant soot, a common biomass material, as carbon source, and finally obtained the nanoscale porous carbon electrode (NPCE) materials. Then, the electrochemical properties of the as-prepared NPCE materials were tested in 6 M KOH, and the results indicated that the specific capacitance could reach 216?Fg^?1. Therefore, this low-cost, highly efficient technique is a significant milepost towards environmentally sustainable and commercially feasible fabrication of carbon electrode materials from biomass sources.     

Atomic Modulation Triggering Improved Performance of MoO3 Nanobelts for Fiber‐Shaped Supercapacitors

Asymmetric supercapacitors (ASCs) are emerging as a new class of energy storage devices that could potentially meet the increasing power and energy demand for next‐generation portable and flexible electronics. Yet, the energy density of ASC is severely limited by the low capacitance of the anode side, which commonly uses the carbon‐based nanomaterials. Here, the demonstration of sulfur‐doped MoO_3?x nanobelts (denoted as S‐MoO_3?x) as the anode for high‐performance fiber‐shaped ASC are reported. The Mo sites in MoO₃ are intentionally modulated at the atomic level through sulfur doping, where sulfur could be introduced into the MoO₆ octahedron to intrinsically tune the covalency character of bonds around Mo sites and thus boost the charge storage kinetics of S‐MoO_3?x. Moreover, the oxygen defects are occurring along with sulfur‐doping in MoO₃, enabling efficient electron transport. As expected, the fiber‐shaped S‐MoO_3?x achieves outstanding capacitance with good rate capability and long cycling life. More impressively, the fiber‐shaped ASC based on S‐MoO_3?x anode delivers extremely high volumetric capacitance of 6.19 F cm^?3 at 0.5 mA cm^?1, which makes it promising as one of the most attractive candidates of anode materials for high‐performance fiber‐shaped ASCs.     

Template-free synthesis of novel Co3O4 micro-bundles assembled with flakes for high-performance hybrid supercapacitors

In this paper, a novel Co₃O₄ micro-bundles structure (Co₃O₄ MBs) was obtained at 120 °C after a hydrothermal reaction for 24 h and followed by an annealing treatment at 300 °C in air. The unique Co₃O₄ MBs are constructed by many adjacent flakes with 0.4 μm in thickness, and exhibit a large surface area of 81.2 m² g^?1 and a mean pore diameter of 6.14 nm, which may facilitate a sufficient contact with electrolyte and then shorten the diffusion pathway of ions. A remarkable electrochemical behavior including specific capacity of 282.3 C g^?1 at 1 A g^?1 and 205.9 C g^?1 at 10 A g^?1, and an excellent cycling performance with 74.6% capacity retention after 4000 charge-discharge process at 5 A g^?1 are achieved when the test of Co₃O₄ MBs-modified electrode is performed using three-electrode configuration. Additionally, a hybrid supercapacitor (HSC) was fabricated with the obtained Co₃O₄ MBs as positive electrode and commercial activated carbon (AC) as negative electrode. The HSC exhibits a specific capacity of 144.1 C g^?1 at 1 A g^?1 and 126.4% capacity retention after 5000 cycles at 5 A g^?1. An energy density of 38.5 W h kg^?1 can be obtained at a power density of 962.0 W kg^?1, and 29.5 W h kg^?1 is still retained at 8532.5 W kg^?1. The simple synthetic strategy can be applicable to the synthesis of other transition metal oxides with superior electrochemical performance.     

Conductive Hydrogel-Based Electrodes and Electrolytes for Stretchable and Self-Healable Supercapacitors

Stretchable self-healing supercapacitors (SCs) can operate under extreme deformation and restore their initial properties after damage with considerably improved durability and reliability, expanding their opportunities in numerous applications, including smart wearable electronics, bioinspired devices, human–machine interactions, etc. It is challenging, however, to achieve mechanical stretchability and self-healability in energy storage technologies, wherein the key issue lies in the exploitation of ideal electrode and electrolyte materials with exceptional mechanical stretchability and self-healing ability besides conductivity. Conductive hydrogels (CHs) possess unique hierarchical porous structure, high electrical/ionic conductivity, broadly tunable physical and chemical properties through molecular design and structure regulation, holding tremendous promise for stretchable self-healing SCs. Hence, this review is innovatively constructed with a focus on stretchable and self-healing CH based electrodes and electrolytes for SCs. First, the common synthetic approaches of CHs are introduced; then the stretching and self-healing strategies involved in CHs are systematically elaborated; followed by an explanation of the conductive mechanism of CHs; then focusing on CH-based electrodes and electrolytes for stretchable self-healing SCs; subsequently, application of stretchable and self-healing SCs in wearable electronics are discussed; finally, a conclusion is drawn along with views on the challenges and future research directions regarding the field of CHs for SCs.     

Mesoporous Nanoarchitectures for Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage

Mesoporous materials have attracted considerable attention because of their distinctive properties, including high surface areas, large pore sizes, tunable pore structures, controllable chemical compositions, and abundant forms of composite materials. During the last decade, there has been increasing research interest in constructing advanced mesoporous nanomaterials possessing short and open channels with efficient mass diffusion capability and rich accessible active sites for electrochemical energy conversion and storage. Here, the synthesis, structures, and energy-related applications of mesoporous nanomaterials are the main focus. After a brief summary of synthetic methods of mesoporous nanostructures, the delicate design and construction of mesoporous nanomaterials are described in detail through precise tailoring of the particle sizes, pore sizes, and nanostructures. Afterward, their applications as electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries, supercapacitors, water-splitting electrolyzers, and fuel cells are discussed. Finally, the possible development directions and challenges of mesoporous nanomaterials for electrochemical energy conversion and storage are proposed.     

Ultrasonically dispersed multi-composite strategy of NiCo2S4/Halloysite nanotubes/carbon: An efficient solid-state hybrid supercapacitor and hydrogen evolution reaction material

Herein, we have developed a novel hybrid material based on NiCo₂S₄ (NCS), halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), and carbon as promising electrodes for supercapacitors (SCs). Firstly, mesoporous NCS nanoflakes were prepared by co-precipitation method followed by physically mixing with HNTs and carbon, and screen printed on nickel foam. After ultrasonication, a uniform distribution of the Carbon/HNTs complex was observed, which was confirmed by surface morphological analysis. When used as electrode material, the NCS/HNTs/C hybrid displayed a maximum specific capacity of 544 mAh g^?1 at a scan rate of 5 mV s^?1. Later, a solid-state hybrid SCs was fabricated using activated carbon (AC) as the negative and NCS/HNTs/C as the positive electrode (NCS/HNTs/C//AC). The device delivers a high energy density of 42.66 Wh kg^?1 at a power density of 8.36 kW kg^?1. In addition, the device demonstrates long-term cycling stability. Furthermore, the optimized NCS, NCS/HNTs, and NCS/HNTs/C nanocomposites also presented superior hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance of 201, 169, and 116 mV in the acidic bath at a current density of 10 mA cm^?2, respectively. Thus, the synthesis of NCS/HNTs/C nanocomposite as positive electrodes for hybrid SCs opens new opportunities for the development of next-generation high energy density SCs.     

Textile supercapacitors‐based on MnO2/SWNT/conducting polymer ternary composites

This paper describes a simple and fast process for the fabrication of flexible and textile‐based supercapacitors. Symmetric electrodes made up of binder‐free ternary composites of manganese oxide (MnO₂) nanoparticles, single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) and a conducting polymer (either polyaniline (PANI) or poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene)–poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)) were layer‐by‐layer deposited onto cotton substrates by dip coating method. Solid‐state supercapacitor devices were assembled using a gel electrolyte. Specific capacitances of 294 F/g and 246 F/g were obtained for MnO₂/SWNT/PANI and MnO₂/SWNT/PEDOT:PSS ternary nanocomposite supercapacitors, respectively. Power densities for these supercapacitors were 746.5 W/kg and 640.5 W/kg for MnO₂/SWNT/PANI and MnO₂/SWNT/PEDOT:PSS, respectively. Good capacity retention (more than 70%) upon cycling over 1000 times was achieved for both electrode compositions. Supercapacitors demonstrated in this work would be well suited as disposable power sources for wearable and intelligent textiles. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fabrication of novel hybrid composite La2‐xCoxCuO4 electrode for high performance supercapacitors

Hybrid composites La_2‐xCo_xCuO₄ (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3) are prepared using one‐step simple hydrothermal route as electrodes for supercapacitors. The effect of varying cobalt content on morphological, structural, and electrochemical properties has been explored using X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and cyclic voltammetry, respectively. The structural parameters obtained by X‐ray diffraction showed tetragonal phase of hybrid composite without any evident impurity phases. The analysis of morphological properties suggested a strong correlation with electrochemical properties, for instance, a relationship between fabric porous structures and electrochemically active sites for redox reactions and intercalation/de‐intercalation processes. The hybrid composite electrodes demonstrated high specific capacitance of the order of 1304 F/g at 10 mV/s scan rate and exhibited decreasing trend on increasing scan rate. Hybrid composites were also tested for their ability as an electrode of high performance supercapacitors in different aqueous electrolytes, i. e, KOH, H₂SO₄, and Na₂SO₄ to optimize the best compatible electrolyte. The composite electrode material showed excellent cyclic stability and 98% capacitance retention for 1 A/g after 2000 cycles. The remarkable performance of hybrid composite electrode entails its potential for commercial applications of supercapacitors.