Carbon fibre-reinforced poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidylether based multifunctional structural supercapacitor composites for electrical energy storage applications

We have developed structural supercapacitors that can carry mechanical loads as well as can store electrochemical energy simultaneously. Structural supercapacitors are fabricated by impregnating carbon fibre mat electrodes and glass fibre mat separator with crosslinked poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidylether polymer electrolyte using the resin infusion under flexible tooling method. In this study, design parameters of the structural supercapacitors have been explored including the separators and the polymer electrolytes. The fabricated structural supercapacitors have been characterised using charge–discharge method and impedance spectroscopy to evaluate the electrochemical performance and in-plane shear properties to evaluate the mechanical performance. A structural supercapacitor, exhibiting a specific capacitance of 10.3 mF/cm3 and a shear modulus of 0.50 GPa simultaneously, have been fabricated.