Effects of Aging and Temperature on Supercapacitor Charge Capacity

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of aging condition and operating temperature on supercapacitor charge capacity. Both the utilized and total charge capacities are studied: the former refers to the amount of charge delivered during a constant current discharge process and the latter measures the total available charge stored in the supercapacitor. Experimental results show that aging leads to degradation of supercapacitor capacitance and therefore a drop in charge capacity. Supercapacitor charge capacity also drops when the operating temperature decreases. Depending on the specific aging condition and operating temperature, the effects of these two mechanisms on supercapacitor charge capacity may be enhanced or reduced. Comparisons of the upper and lower bounds of the utilized and total charge capacities show that the differences between the bounds are significant for all samples under different aging conditions and at different operating temperatures.