Immobile polyanionic backbone enables a 900-µm-thick electrode for compact energy storage with unprecedented areal capacitance.

ABSTRACT

Thickening of electrodes is crucial for maximizing the proportion of active components and thus improving the energy density of practical energy storage cells. Nevertheless, trade-offs between electrode thickness and electrochemical performance persist because of the considerably increased ion transport resistance of thick electrodes. Herein, we propose accelerating ion transport through thick and dense electrodes by establishing an immobile polyanionic backbone within the electrode pores; and as a proof of concept, gel polyacrylic electrolytes as such a backbone are in situ synthesized for supercapacitors. During charge and discharge, protons rapidly hop among RCOO- sites for oriented transport, fundamentally reducing the effects of electrode tortuosity and polarization resulting from concentration gradients. Consequently, nearly constant ion transport resistance per unit thickness is achieved, even in the case of a 900-µm-thick dense electrode, leading to unprecedented areal capacitances of 14.85 F cm-2 at 1 mA cm-2 and 4.26 F cm-2 at 100 mA cm-2. This study provides an efficient method for accelerating ion transport through thick and dense electrodes, indicating a significant solution for achieving high energy density in energy storage devices, including but not limited to supercapacitors.