Sustainable Materials for Electrochemcial Capacitors

7Functional Binders for Electrochemical Capacitors

Purnima Baruah and Debajyoti Mahanta*

Department of Chemistry, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam, India

Abstract

Electrochemical capacitors or supercapacitors are becoming more popular day by day in the global energy scenario due to their unique position between batteries and capacitors in terms of power and energy. Active material, conducting agent, binder, and current collector are the four essential components of a supercapacitor electrode. Among these components, binder is used in the lowest possible ratio, but it acts as a crucial component in maintaining the performance of the electrode by holding all other components together. Generally, synthetic fluorinated polymers are used as binder materials in supercapacitors for their excellent binding ability. But, use of these fluoropolymers is not sustainable from economic as well as environmental point of view. To resolve these issues, different eco-friendly, cheap materials are being explored by the researchers to use as binders. In this book chapter, we have discussed the role of binders, issues related to the conventional binders and different types of sustainable binding materials explored by the researchers for supercapacitor electrode preparation.

Keywords: Binder, sustainable, eco-friendly, energy storage, supercapacitor

7.1 Introduction

Entire world is presently experiencing a critical time due to exponentially increasing utilization of depleting fossil fuel based ...