Project Description:

Supercapacitors rely on the reversible adsorption of electrolyte ions on a porous
high-surface- area carbon electrode. Small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS), a
technique to measure structure on length scales of 0.5 – 200 nm, will be used to
study the properties of ionic liquid-based electrolyte ions as they respond to the
changing electric field of the porous nanometer-scale conductive pores in which
they are contained. This project will include the development of an
electrochemical sample cell as well SAXS experiments to understand ion/charged
pore interactions in this energy storage project.