Supercapacitor materials market to reach $5bn by 2025

The report details the materials, performance achievements and objectives manufacturers and researchers of supercapacitors and supercabatteries. It sets out the performance, formulation and morphology of the key materials currently used, as well as those planned for future use. Work by device manufacturers and third party developers and suppliers of the key functional materials across the world are included.

'Functional Materials for Supercapacitors / Ultracapacitors / EDLC 2015-2025' explores the material needs of large supercapacitors in EVs (in which they will partly or wholly replace traction batteries), grid, railway and other electrical engineering applications. According to the report, they will replace inverter capacitors and be useful in other EV locations such as regenerative braking backup and bus door opening.

IDTechEx has also forecast the best energy density that will be achieved in volume production in the next 10 and 15 years, the best candidate materials, capacitor structures and electrolytes for achieving this and the value market resulting. The company also shows which electrode functional materials best leverage the next-generation electrolytes. Based on ongoing interviews, many key industry players are identified and their business/research plans revealed.

According to the report, the active electrodes, electrolyte and then the separator (which solid state supercapacitors in the laboratory do not have) are the most costly and critical components of a supercapacitor. Since the structure and chemistry of electrodes/electrolytes are critical, IDTechEx believe that new forms must be optimised as an electrode-electrolyte pair. Commercial electrodes are commonly bulk carbon and hierarchical - macropores leading to micropores. The best laboratory results for improved energy density for battery replacement and time constant for electrolytic capacitor replacement are exohedral - nano structures or carbon allotropes such as graphene, carbon nanotubes and nano-onions (spheres within spheres). While graphene usually performs best in the laboratory, IDTechEx is uncertain when, or even whether, it will win commercially.