Corrosion prevention in electrochemical capacitors

The shrinking resources and the aggressive exploitation of fossil fuels have led to a far–reaching environmental degradation. Therefore, in recent years, work on chemical power sources and energy storage devices has been intensified. The mentioned chemical power sources and energy storage devices are not only batteries (rechargeable cells) and primary cells but also electrochemical capacitors (ECs), which have been gaining more interest in recent years. These devices, unlike typical batteries and cells, store electrical energy by accumulating a charge in an electrical double layer at the electrode/electrolyte interface. Nevertheless, regardless of the choice of the method of energy storage, every device described above has a certain lifetime, which depends on many factors, including the corrosion of metal and/or steel current collectors. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the impact of positive current collector anti-corrosive surface modification on the effect of the lifetime of an EC device. In this case, a double-layer oxide/siloxane coating was applied to the surface of the stainless steel collector. The research results proved that the inhibition of its corrosion by the implementation of the mentioned coating has a positive effect on the extension of the lifetime of the electrochemical capacitor.