Effect of Hydrogen Bonding on a Value of an Open Circuit Potential of Poly-(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) as a Beneficial Mode for Energy Storage Devices
Abstract
Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) is one of the semiconducting polymers that has attracted attention as electroactive materials for many different applications such as electrochromic devices, light-emitting diodes, biosensors, or supercapacitors. The fundamental understanding of the origin of its energy storage ability would lead to the proper design of such devices.
Generally, the charge storage in supercapacitors is due to the formation of an electrical double layer and/or redox reactions. Recently, it is shown that the formation of cation radicals in PEDOT is induced by the hydrogen-bond formation between formic acid and polymer during electrochemical polymerization.
The induced cation radicals play a major role in the charge storage ability of PEDOT. Furthermore, the presence of hydrogen-bonds in PEDOT leads to the stable in time open circuit potential of 0.9 V.
This new knowledge leads to the designing of a symmetrical supercapacitor based on PEDOT as active material where hydrogen-bonds plays a crucial role in the improved performance of the device.