BAI XUE

COULY CEDRIC
DUARTE RODRIGUEZ ALEJANDRO
LE PHU THIEN
WIZNER AGNIESKA

SUPERCAPACITORS

During this practical we will measure the Capacitance of 4 different Electrochemical Capacitors
with 3 different ways:
1/Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy
2/Cyclic Voltammetry
3/Galvanostatic Charge and Discharge
How it works?
Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy: apply one potential with one frequency and we measure
the current returned.
Cyclic Voltammetry: the working electrode potential is ramped linearly versus time. We measure
the current returned.
Galvanostatic Charge and Discharge: charge and discharge of the swagelok with the same working
electrode's current, here 2mA.
Goal of this practical:
Measure the Capacitance of the 4 cell,
Effect of the concentration of the solution,
Effect of the radius of the cation dissolved in the solution,
Compare the result of the different solution.

1/Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy

Experiment:
4 different solutions.
Electrolyte

HCl 1M

HCl 3M

KCl 1M

KCl 3M

Mass of carbon
layer (mg)

25.2

21

23.3

29

So 4 different swageloks.
Each of them have 2 electrodes of gold and 1 carbon layer between the electrolyte and each
electrode.

Draw of one swagelok

Results
To obtain the capacitance from the EIS, you must take the value of the frequency and the resistance
from the point which has the lower frequency (right part on the Nyquist Diagram).

Graph to explain how to take the value of impedance

HCl 1M:
f

(Hz)

1.00E-003

Z'' ()

45.56

Mass carbon (g)

0.03

C (F) for the device

3.41

C (F.g-1)

135

1.00E-003

HCl 3M:
(Hz)

Z'' ()

30.3

Mass carbon (g)

0.03

C (F) for the device

5.25

C (F.g-1)

250

1.00E-003

KCl 1M:
(Hz)

Z'' ()

43.52

Mass carbon (g)

0.02

C (F) for the device

3.65

C (F.g-1)

157

1.00E-003

KCl 3M:
(Hz)

Z'' ()

29.5

Mass carbon (g)

0.03

C (F) for the device

5.39

C (F.g-1)

186

2/Cyclic Voltammetry

Graph of charge and discharge in cylic voltammetry,

To calculate the slope we choose the point of maximum charge Point 1 and his homologue Point 2
n.b: Q discharge is in C or A.s , we don't need to multiply by 3600 as we have in the support
HCl 1M:
Slope (As.V-1)

-0.42

C capacitance gravimetrique (F.g-1) 32.9

HCl 3M:
Slope (As.V-1)

-0.79

C capacitance gravimetrique (F.g-1) 75.23

KCl 1M:
Slope (As.V-1)

-0.29

C capacitance gravimetrique (F.g-1) 24.89

KCl 3M:
Slope (As.V-1)

-1.19

C capacitance gravimetrique (F.g-1) 82.06

3/Galvanostatic Charge and Discharge characteristic

Graph to explain how to calculate the slope

HCl 1M:
Slope (V.s-1)

-3.58E-003

C capacitance gravimetrique (F.g-1) 44.33

HCl 3M:
Slope (V.s-1)

inexploitable

C capacitance gravimetrique (F.g-1) inexploitable

KCl 1M:
Slope (V.s-1)

-4.10E-003

C capacitance gravimetrique (F.g-1) 41.87

KCl 3M:
Slope (V.s-1)

-3.31E-003

C capacitance gravimetrique (F.g-1) 41.67

Discussion
All the measure
are in F.g-1

EIS

CV

GCD

Average
capacitance

HCl 1M

135

33

44

71

HCl 3M

250

75

KCl 1M

157

25

42

74

KCl 3M

186

86

42

105

We can conclude that when we increase the concentration for one solution we increase the
capacitance. Because we have more atoms stuck on the electrode, so more exchangeable charge.
From public data, the value of capacitance of Supercapacitors is approximately 150-250 F.g-1, as
we can see we have the same value for EIS experiment but for CV and GCD we have the value that
are 3-4 times lower. Thus, we can conclude that EIS method is more accurate than the 2 other
methods