Issue 23, 2025

Advancements in supercapacitors: breaking barriers and enabling amazing applications

Abstract

Supercapacitors (SCs) display intrinsic advantages such as high power density and high rate capability but low energy density. Thus, the development of advanced pseudocapacitive electrode materials is crucial for the advancement of supercapacitor technologies. These electrode materials significantly influence the performance of supercapacitors in electrical energy storage (EES) systems in terms of energy density and cycling stability. In this review, we first discuss EES technologies and their development and types of SCs, followed by an overview of the importance of organic electrode materials in pseudocapacitor (PSC) applications. Moreover, we present the principles of different redox-active organic molecule design strategies and their theoretical calculations to understand their electrochemical characteristics. Furthermore, we highlight the role of redox-active organic electrode materials in achieving a wider potential voltage window and, in turn, higher energy density, thus enhancing the electrochemical performance of PSCs. Subsequently, we discuss the role of molecular structures, the composition of electronic conducting materials and their structural and electrochemical performance relationship. Moreover, we highlight the advantages and disadvantages of organic materials compared with traditional transition-metal oxide inorganic materials for PSCs. Then, we present a brief discussion on the advances in small redox-active molecular architectures and their use in the fabrication of novel electrode materials, including polymers, covalent organic frameworks and metal organic frameworks. We provide an in-depth discussion on how material development from small redox-active molecules advances the charge-storage field and their application in illuminating light-emitting diodes. We hope that this review article will help provide a fundamental basis for the design and development of next-generation pseudocapacitive electrode materials from renewable sources for sustainable supercapacitor systems with higher charge-storage capability.

Graphical abstract: Advancements in supercapacitors: breaking barriers and enabling amazing applications

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
12 Mar 2025
Accepted
15 May 2025
First published
15 May 2025
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2025,16, 10159-10227

Advancements in supercapacitors: breaking barriers and enabling amazing applications

S. V. Bhosale and S. V. Bhosale, Chem. Sci., 2025, 16, 10159 DOI: 10.1039/D5SC01955A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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