Capacitance recovery analysis and modelling of supercapacitors during cycling ageing tests

During accelerated ageing tests of supercapacitors (SC), a decay in their performance is reflected by a decrease in capacitance and an increase in equivalent series resistance ESR. In power cycling, when electric solicitations of the SC are interrupted for the purposes of real use or characterisation, performance recovery is observed, mainly in terms of an increase in capacitance. This phenomenon is due to a redistribution of electrical charges, balancing of impurities inside the porous carbon electrodes, and the cell's return to thermodynamically steady-state conditions. A repetitive long rest period during cycling appears to slow down the ageing process, and to reduce the decay in performance. The impacts on capacitance recovery during rest time, of both cut-off voltage and temperature, are studied. A nonlinear analytical expression is used to predict the capacitance decay for several durations and test interruption periodicities; this is also used to model the capacitance during rest time, taking the cut-off voltage, rest time and temperature into account.