Polyacrylamide-lithium chloride polymer electrolyte and its applications in electrochemical capacitors

•Neutral polymer electrolytes using LiCl-Polyacrylamide (PAM) was developed.•LiCl-PAM has achieved a good ionic conductivity > 10 mS cm− 1 in ambient environment.•The LiCl-PAM enabled solid CNT-graphite supercapacitor has a 1.5 V stability window.•The solid cell showed excellent rate performance (5 V s− 1) and cycle life (10,000 ×).

A neutral polymer electrolyte containing lithium chloride (LiCl) and polyacrylamide (PAM) was developed. The LiCl-PAM electrolyte film had an amorphous structure and an ionic conductivity > 10 mS cm− 1. The addition of LiCl to the polyacrylamide did not alter the chemical bonding of PAM. Symmetric double layer capacitors (EDLC) were constructed using CNT-graphite electrodes. The solid EDLC retained approximately 85% of the capacitance achieved with a baseline cell in a LiCl aqueous solution. The solid EDLC devices demonstrated a wide voltage window (1.5 V), good cycle life (> 10,000 cycles), and excellent rate capability (up to 5 V s− 1).

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