Experimental and theoretical studies of nonlinear dependence of the internal resistance and electrode thickness for high performance supercapacitor

In this study, the internal resistance with the increasing of electrode thickness in a typical nanoporous carbon-based supercapacitor and their corresponding electrochemical performances were designed and investigated in detail. As for the carbon-based double electrode layer electrochemical system, electrochemical experiments greatly support the fact of nonlinear dependence and indicate that the curve of internal resistance vs. electrode thickness can have a minimum value when the thickness increasing from 10 to 140 μm. To explain the underlying mechanisms responsible for the nonlinear dependence, a theoretical model based on a porous electrode/electrolyte electrochemical system was proposed. As expected, the results of calculations carried out in the framework of the proposed model can be very good agreement with the experimental data. According to the calculation, the optimized electrode thickness is 53.1 μm corresponding to the minimum value of SC internal resistance. Obviously, the current research results might greatly support the nonlinear conclusion instead of linear relationship between the internal resistance and the electrode thickness and may shed some light on the fabrication and exploration of supercapacitors with high power density.