Disentangling faradaic, pseudocapacitive, and capacitive charge storage: A tutorial for the characterization of batteries, supercapacitors, and hybrid systems

Today's electrochemical energy storage technologies aim to combine high specific energy and power, as well as long cycle life, into one system to meet increasing demands in performance. These properties, however, are often characteristic of either batteries (high specific energy) or capacitors (high specific power and cyclability). To merge battery-and capacitor-like properties in a hybrid energy storage system, researchers must understand and control the co-existence of multiple charge storage mechanisms. Charge storage mechanisms can be classified as faradaic, capacitive, or pseudocapacitive, where their relative contributions determine the operating principles and electrochemical performance of the system. Hybrid electrochemical energy storage systems can be better understood and analyzed if the primary charge storage mechanism is identified correctly. This tutorial review first defines faradaic and capacitive charge storage mechanisms and then clarifies the definition of pseudocapacitance using a physically intuitive framework. Then, we discuss strategies that enable these charge storage mechanisms to be quantitatively disentangled using common electrochemical techniques. Finally, we outline representative hybrid energy storage systems that combine the electrochemical characteristics of batteries, capacitors and pseudocapacitors. Modern examples are analyzed while step-by-step guides are provided for all mentioned experimental methods in the Supplementary Information.

Automated summary

Today's electrochemical energy storage technologies aim to combine high specific energy and power, as well as long cycle life, into one system. To achieve this, researchers need to understand and control the co-existence of multiple charge storage mechanisms. This tutorial review provides a comprehensive guide to defining, clarifying, and discussing the faradaic, capacitive, and pseudocapacitive mechanisms, as well as strategies for disentangling them, in order to advance the research of hybrid energy storage systems.