Polyvinyl alcohol-polystyrene sulphonic acid blend electrolyte for supercapacitor application

Abstract

A new polymer blend electrolyte based on poly vinyl alcohol and poly styrene sulphonic acid has been studied as an electrolyte for supercapcitors. A carbon-carbon supercapacitor has been fabricated using this electrolyte and its electrochemical characteristics and performance have been studied. The conductivity has been calculated using the bulk impedance obtained through impedance spectroscopy. The real and imaginary parts of the electrical modulus of samples show a long tail feature, which can be attributed to high capacitance of the material. The super capacitor showed a fairly good specific capacitance of 40 F g- 1 and a time constant of 5 s. 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.