Insight into thermal regulation of supercapacitors via surface-engineered phase change microcapsules

Yan Hu; Haibin Chen; Meiqi Liu; Qi Tang; Yikun Huang; Guanhua Shen; Yangjun Zhang; Chen Liu; Zhaowen Huang; Kunming Gu; Da-Zhu Chen

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.10.014

Insight into thermal regulation of supercapacitors via surface-engineered phase change microcapsules

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Jan 15;630(Pt A):150-160. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.10.014. Epub 2022 Oct 9.

Authors

Yan Hu¹, Haibin Chen¹, Meiqi Liu¹, Qi Tang¹, Yikun Huang¹, Guanhua Shen¹, Yangjun Zhang¹, Chen Liu², Zhaowen Huang¹, Kunming Gu¹, Da-Zhu Chen³

Affiliations

¹ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China.
² Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China. Electronic address: liuchen@szu.edu.cn.
³ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China. Electronic address: dzchen@szu.edu.cn.

PMID: 36240689
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.10.014

Abstract

Constructing efficient thermal management system to settle the thermal runaway of energy storage devices via employing phase change microcapsules (MEPCMs) is of great significance. However, it is still a challenge that the conventional MEPCMs go against the electrochemical performance and hardly be homogenously fixed in the electrodes. In order to conquer these long-standing critical issues, we designed a novel electrochemically active double-shell phase change microcapsule by introducing polypyrrole on the surface of dense amine resin shell of the conventional inert MEPCM. The active MEPCMs@PPy are uniformly immobilized on the surface of the electrode material using reduced graphene oxide to ensure the stable and efficient operation of the flexible supercapacitor. The assembled all-solid-state supercapacitor containing MEPCMs@PPy (SCs@MEPCMs@PPy) lagged 103 s to 55 °C than the SCs@00 without the added phase change material. At a high temperature of 55 °C and a scan rate of 50 mV s^-1, SCs@MEPCMs@PPy exhibits an areal specific capacitance of 110.6 mA cm^-2, which is higher than that of the original SCs@MEPCMs. A capacitance retention of 79.8 % and coulombic efficiency of 98.4 % can be reached after 3000 cycles. This study opens a new avenue for developing applicable microencapsulated phase change materials in temperature-regulated electrode systems for supercapacitors and alkaline-ion batteries.

Keywords: Phase change microcapsules; Polypyrrole; Reduced graphene oxide; Supercapacitors; Thermal regulation.