Characterization of commercial supercapacitors for low temperature applications

Electrochemical characterizations at low temperature and floating tests have been performed on 600F commercial supercapacitor (SC) for acetonitrile (AN)-based and AN + methyl acetate (MA) mixed electrolytes. From −40 to +20 °C, AN electrolyte showed slightly higher capacitance than those of AN + MA mixed electrolytes (25 and 33 vol.% of MA). At −55 °C, however, AN electrolyte did not cycle at all, while MA mixed electrolyte normally cycled with a slight decrease in their capacitance. From electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements, the whole resistance for AN-based cells at −55 °C was found to be about 10,000 times higher than that of +20 °C, while a 40-fold increase in the cell resistance was obtained for the MA mixture between 20 and −55 °C. From the results of floating tests at 2.7 V and 60 °C for 1 month, the 25 vol.% MA mixture showed no change and slight decreased but stable capacitance.