Biomass-based electrolytes for supercapacitor applications

Electrochemical capacitors (ESCs), also known as supercapacitors (SCs), are attracting immense research attention because of their excellent performance, including long-term cycling stability, high power density, and superior safety over rechargeable batteries, even though there are no globally accepted quantitative benchmarks for cycling stability, power density, or safety. It should be emphasized, however, that SCs can not compensate for the demands of requiring both high energy and power density as they have a poor energy density. Various strategies have been used to increase the electrochemical performance of supercapacitors. Among them, biomass-based electrolytes enhance ionic conductivity in different ways, gaining tremendous interest from the scientific community owing to their ease of design, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, wide electrochemical window, high ionic conductivity, and service safety. Most importantly, the ecofriendly behaviour of biomass-based electrolytes makes them crucial in energy storage and conversion. The recent advancement of biomass-based electrolytes in the development of SCs is discussed in this chapter, as well as their future prospects.