Natural, cheap and environmentally friendly binder for supercapacitors

In this work we report the use of natural cellulose as the binder for composite electrodes for electrochemical double-layer capacitors (EDLCs). Composite electrodes containing natural cellulose as the binder can be prepared using either ionic liquid based slurries or aqueous suspensions containing a polymeric stabilizer and a surfactant. These composite electrodes display good mechanical stability, uniform morphology and a thermal stability comparable to those made with conventional binders. Moreover, when used as electrodes in EDLCs, they allow the realization of devices able to display high performance in term of specific capacitance and cycling stability in all type of electrolytes used in EDLCs. Considering the appealing properties of natural cellulose, the introduction of this material as a binder in EDLCs could be an important contribution for the development of cheap, safe and environmentally friendly EDLCs. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.