SUPERCAPACITORS : NEW SUPER ENERGY

STORAGE DEVICE
Nitin Kathuria, Assistant Professor Richa Sharma, Lecturer
Electronics and Communication Branch Electronics and Communication Branch
Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology for Women Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology for Women
Ghaziabad, India Ghaziabad, India
nitin.kathuria.rkgitw@gmail.com sharma86richa@gmail.com

physical formats from small surface mount components to size

Abstract— Supercapacitor is a new class of electrochemical of a cylindrical can.
double layer capacitor which stores charge in it around two It consists of two electrode immersed in an electrolyte as shown
carbon electrodes dipped in alkaline electrolyte. It has emerged in the Fig (1) [1].
with the potential to enable major advances in energy storage.
Supercapacitors are governed by the same fundamental
equations as conventional capacitors, but utilize higher surface
area electrodes and thinner dielectrics to achieve greater
capacitances. This allows for energy densities greater than those
of conventional capacitors and power densities greater than
those of batteries. As a result, supercapacitors may become an
attractive power solution Its charging and discharging is not a
chemical process as in batteries, which is not an aging process
so they live longer than batteries and also they provide very high
power output.

Keywords- Batteries, Supercapacitors, Comparison

I. INTRODUCTION
Electrical energy is required in many applications –like
telecommunication devices, cellphones, cordless, standby power
systems, electric vehicles etc and energy used in these devices
are specified in the terms of energy (Wh) or power (W) .Now
with the advancement in technology the devices need high and
more lasting power device, so it is often reasonable to think
about a new power device which can provide high power in the
form of pulses which can be charged periodically from a
primary storage device(battery).As traditional capacitors cannot
store that much charge ,so is the need of Supercapacitors or
Ultracapacitors .As the name suggests ‗Super‘ or ‗Ultra‘ it is
having high capacitance nearly three times the magnitude of the
conventional capacitors .Their characteristics differ from those
of batteries and they are useful because they complement the
short comings of batteries and other power supply devices. [2, 4]
II. WHAT IS SUPERCAPACITOR?
Basically, Supercapacitor or Ultracapacitor or EDLC
(Electrochemical Double Layer Capacitor) is, however a
capacitor _ a two terminal component available in variety of
Fig 1&2 UltraCap layer and Electrode structure [1]
When the electrodes are charged electrically, the ions in the
electrolyte tend to move to the oppositely charged electrode
balancing the excess charge at the carbon electrode. The
electrode are made of high surface area, porous material having
pores of diameter nanometer (nm),preferably carbon. ―The
extremely small pore gives a very large active internal surface,
in the order of 1000square meters per gram.‖[3]
―Thus across the phase boundary between carbon and
electrolyte there are two layers of excess charge of opposite
polarity .This is called Electrochemical Double Layer [1].‖
The capacitance is dependent on the material of electrode such
as area, pore size and pore size distribution. Energy stored is
purely static rather than electrochemical as in battery
And charging and discharging is purely dependent of movement
of ions and capacitance is stored in whole Farads (F), instead of
mere microfarads (uF)[1].

Fig 3 .Schematic of double layer Super capacitor [2]
As shown in the ions displace in forming the double layer in the
pores are transferred between electrodes by diffusion through
electrolyte.
―The energy and charge stored in super capacitors are 1/2CV 2
and CV, respectively.The capacitance is dependent on
characteristics of electrode and can be written as
C/g= (F/cm^2) act* (cm^2/g) act
where surface area referred to is the active area in the pores on
which the double layer is formed[2].‖
The cell voltage of super capacitor is dependent on the
electrolyte used .For aqueous electrolytes the cell voltage is
1V,because water gets decomposed at higher voltages and for
organic electrolytes such as potassium hydroxide(KOH)or
sulphuric acid(H2SO4),the voltage is 3-3.5 V.
For getting high voltage output the capacitors can be connected
in series but it decreases the capacitance so in order to maintain
the capacitance with high voltage requires an array i.e.
Series/parallel array [2, 3]
III. COMPARISON BETWEEN SUPERCAPACITORS AND
BATTERIES
A. Lifetime
―The electric energy in batteries is stored in directly in the
chemical compounds and released on the basis of Faraday‘s
oxidation and reduction process of electrochemically active
material. The chemical reactions on the electrodes have the
major influence on the aging of batteries. In the capacitor,
electric energy is stored direct as a positive and negative charge
on the plates, without any reaction on the electrode surfaces. The
aging of capacitors is not directly affected by reverse charging
process, and they can be charged and discharged frequently
without noticeable changes in the capacitors[1].‖ Therefore
supercapacitor is having longer lifetime.[1]
B. Energy Density and Powe Density
The major difference in super capacitors and batteries in the
values of their energy density and power density.―Batteries have
a high level of energy stored (energy density). The rate at which
energy is released is low i.e. low power density whereas in case
of supercapacitor energy density is low but power density is
high. These parameters are calculated in terms of energy or
power per unit volume or per unit weight. Fig 4 shows graph of
energy density vs power density in batteries and supercapacitors
with other power devices [4].‖
Fig 4.Comparison of Storage Technologies [1]
C. Charging and Discharging
Charging and discharging occurs upon movement of ions within
the electrolyte. This mode of energy storage is in contrast to all
battery technologies, since they are based on the formation and
dissolution of chemical compounds on the battery electrodes
(Faraday reactions). In comparison it is not necessary to reach a
certain state of charge (output voltage) in order to use a
Supercapacitors. The battery output voltage does not indicate the
actual charging condition and is not easy to control (flat voltage
level between fully charged and discharged). The
Supercapacitors characteristics show a simple relationship
between voltage level and charging condition (Fig. 5) [1].‖
―This important difference between charging a capacitor and
charging a battery is that there is always an intrinsic increase of
voltage "V" on charge (or decrease on discharge) of a capacitor
as the charge per cm2 is increased or decreased, according to
Equation C = q/V or q = CV which defines the relation between
capacitance "C" and the inter-plate voltage "V" that arises from
accumulation of a charge "q":
In contrast, an ideal battery has a constant voltage during
discharge or recharge except as the state of charge approaches 0
or 100%. (Practically, most batteries exhibit some dependence
of cell voltage on state of charge, especially lithium-intercalation
batteries, the latter for fundamental reasons arising from
intercalation).
The consequence of the above difference, based on Equation , is
that the energy stored by a capacitor is 1/2 CV2 or 1/2 qV while,
for a battery, the corresponding stored energy (or energy density)
is qΔV, twice as much as that for a capacitor charged to the
same cell voltage "ΔV". Thus, the stored energy in a capacitor
device increases as the square of the cell voltage "V" as charge
is accumulated [6]‖
 V. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

OF SUPERCAPACITOR
A. Advantages

Supercapacitors have the highest capacitive density available

today with densities so high that these capacitors can be used to
applications normally reserved for batteries.
Supercapacitors are not as volumetrically efficient and are more
expensive than batteries but they do have other advantages over
batteries making the preferred choice in applications requiring a
large amount of energy storage to be stored and delivered in
bursts repeatedly

Fig .5.Comparison of Battery and Ultra Capacitor charging and Advantages:

discharging curves [1]
D. Low Temperature Dependence
As chemical reactions are temperature dependent therefore
chemical reaction in batteries will slow down at low
temperatures and there is no chemical reaction in
Supercapacitors so they are very less affected by temperature
change but until the changes are within the range of
Supercapacitor [3].
IV. COMPARISON CHART
Table: The following table gives a brief summary of some
critical properties of each technology [5].
 Power density
 Recycle ability
 Environmentally friendly
 Safe
 Light weight
The most significant advantage supercapacitors have over
batteries is their ability to be charged and discharged
continuously without degrading like batteries do. This is why
batteries and supercapacitors are used in conjunction with each
other. The supercapacitors will supply power to the system when
there are surges or energy bursts since supercapacitors can be
charged and discharged quickly while the batteries can supply
the bulk energy since they can store and deliver larger amount
energy over a longer slower period of time.[8]

Property Supercapacitors Capacitors Micro-Fuel Batteries

Cells B. Disadvantages
Charge/Discharge Milliseconds ps (10 - Typically 1 to 10  Linear discharge voltage prevents use of the full energy
Time to seconds 12) to ms 50 to 300 Hours spectrum
(10 -3) hrs.
Instant  Low energy density - typically holds one-fifth to one-
charge tenth the energy of an electrochemical battery
(refuel).
Operating -40 to +85 -20 to +25 to -20 to +65  Cells have low voltages - serial connections are needed
Temperature °C +100 °C +90 °C °C to obtain higher voltages. Voltage balancing is required
Operating 2.5 V to 5 V 6 to 800 0.6 V / 1.25 to 3.6 if more than three capacitors are connected in series
Voltage V cell V
 High self-discharge - the rate is considerably higher
Capacitance 100 mF to > 10 pF to N/A N/A than that of an electrochemical battery.
2F 2.2 mF
Life 30,000 to >100,000 1500 to 150 to  Requires sophisticated electronic control and switching
50,000 hrs cycles 10,000 1500 equipment [9]
hrs cycles
Weight 1 to 2 grams grams 20 g to g to many VI. APPLICATIONS
5+ kg kg Supercapacitors have found uses include:
Power Density 0.01 to 103 0.25 to 0.001 to 0.005 to  Computer systems
kW/kg 104 0.1 0.4 kW/kg  UPS systems
kW/kg kW/kg  Power conditioners
Energy Density 0.05 to 10 0.01 to 300 to 8 to 600  Welders
Wh/kg 0.05 3000 Wh/kg  Inverters
Wh/kg Wh/kg  Automobile regenerative braking systems
Pulse Load 0.1 to 100 A 0.1 to 150 mA / 0.5 to 2.0
 Power supplies
1000 A cm2 A  Cameras
 Power generators[8]
 VII. CONCLUSION
This new source of electricity will replace the batteries in all
the applications of telecommunications, hybrid cars and others.
This is because of its high energy storage capacity, long life, high
power and good reliability and robustness as compared to the
batteries. [7] Because of their flexibility, however,
supercapacitors can be adapted to serve in roles for which
electrochemical batteries are not as well suited. Also,
supercapacitors have some intrinsic characteristics that make
them ideally suited to specialized roles and applications that
complement the strengths of batteries. In particular,
supercapacitors have great potential for applications that require
a combination of high power, short charging time, high cycling
stability, and long shelf life. That is why supercapacitor and
battery work together, by merging a supercapacitor and a battery
together - like a "Hybrid Battery" it will be possible for
supercapcitors to replace the battery as we know it today.
Supercapacitors need batteries to store the energy and are
basically used as a buffer between the battery and the
device. Supercapacitors can be charged and discharged hundreds
of thousands of times where a battery cannot do that. Soon the
price point will be where most every electronic device will use
them as a hybrid battery. It will be the new super battery. [9]

REFERENCES
[1] http://www.epcos.com/inf/20/35/ds/tecchnology.pdf
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[3] http://www.skeleton-
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[4] http://a330.g.akamai.net/7/330/2540/20030102222605/ww
w.edn.com/contents/images /268379.pdf
[5] http://www.cap-
xx.com/resources/reviews/strge_cmprsn.htm
[6] http://electrochem.cwru.edu/ed/encycl/art-c03-elchem-
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[7] http://www.advancedautobat.com/Ultracapacitor/industry.ht
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[8] http://www.illinoiscapacitor.com/pdf/Papers/supercapacitor
s.pdf
[9] http://www.supercapacitors.org/