Recent Advancements on Biopolymer‐ Based Flexible Electrolytes for Next‐Gen Supercaps and Batteries: A Brief Sketch

Abstract

With a huge upsurge in the energy requirements all over the world, development of energy storage devices with high safety standards without compromising the ecological aspects has become the need of the hour, that propelled the scientific community to search for alternative yet promising sources of energy that would prevent the exhaustion of natural resources. Numerous attempts have been undertaken to utilize the renewable biopolymers in the evolution of solid‐ state electrolytes, as a substitute for liquid electrolytes which are prone to cause leakage leading to hazardous accidents. Despite strenuous efforts, it is still challenging to strike a right balance between the biopolymer elements and the conducting additives. In this review, we aim to lay out a recap on the progress achieved in recent times by employing biopolymers as electrolyte components and its future prospects, that would assist the researchers across the globe to inch one step closer in their quest to find the best electrolyte system for flexible electronics.

Sustainable stretchable batteries for next-generation wearables

“…27,177 Natural biopolymers (gelatin, silk, cellulose, lignin, and chitosan) have been increasingly implemented for various types of battery chemistries as the hydrogel matrix. 178,179 These hydrogels are biodegradable, intrinsically so, and can easily be made stretchable. 180 They can also provide better interfacial contact with the electrode material, which lowers the internal resistance of the cell, 181 mitigate issues with dendrite formation of the biodegradable metal anodes, [182][183][184][185][186] and dissolution of the cathode materials.…”

Novel multicomponent functionalized biopolymers with enhanced thermal and dielectric properties

“…Because of their cheap cost, non-toxicity and capacity for natural degradation, biopolymers are of major interest to the scientific as well as industrial communities for use in electronic applications [1,2]. Biopolymers are being used in a variety of applications, including energy storage [3], thin film transistors [4], electroluminescence [5,6], tissue engineering [7][8][9], biosensing wound-healing, and drug delivery [10]. Numerous attempts have been made to improve the biocompatibility and applications of biopolymers by adding metal oxide nanoparticles [11] as this significantly alters the stability and properties of the pristine materials, yet only limited number of works have been reported on chitin [12,13].…”

Sustainable Modification of Chitosan Binder for Capacitive Electrodes Operating in Aqueous Electrolytes

“…Many of the water processable binders originate from renewable sources and are biodegradable, like cellulose, alginate, starch, etc., and are viable candidates for substitute fluorinated polymers both in supercapacitors and batteries [2,17–21] …”

“…[12][13][14][15][16] Many of the water processable binders originate from renewable sources and are biodegradable, like cellulose, alginate, starch, etc., and are viable candidates for substitute fluorinated polymers both in supercapacitors and batteries. [2,[17][18][19][20][21] Some of these binders are already successfully used in Li ion batteries with organic electrolytes, [22][23][24][25][26][27] and in aqueous Zn batteries. [28,29] However, the use of water-soluble biopolymers, is not feasible in most of the aqueous electrolytes, because of a progressive electrode disruption following binder dissolution.…”