I am currently using KOH and PVA in water to make a KOH gel electrolyte. Adding equal parts KOH and PVA and then evaporating the water off with low heat and stirring for the gel. I made electrodes of graphene powder coated onto copper, and used a polypropylene separator. I tested with a Potentiostat with a Voltage range from 0-1V. However, when testing I am not seeing a CV profile anything on the scale of a supercapacitor. I believe it to be my electrolyte.
Is there any reason for the gel to not be functional or does my problem perhaps lie elsewhere in the system?
Also, is there an easier way to test for capacitance of the graphene powder?
Forrest McCann if u r using gel electrolyte, there is no need of the additional separator. Maybe the reason u r not getting any data in CV is the presence of the separator.. in order to have the CV peaks, the ions transfer should happen between the electrode/eletroylte and ur separator is not allowing it to happen.
Thank you Syed Waqar Hasan . I will try testing without a separator.
Thank you Bin Zhao . I have been making gels from solution with water and PVA material. Some have come out solid and some more amorphous. I have ordered some aqueous electrolyte solution and will test this way as well. Thank you for your suggestion.
Li, Yueming, Marshall Van Zijll, Shirley Chiang, and Ning Pan. "KOH modified graphene nanosheets for supercapacitor electrodes." Journal of Power Sources 196, no. 14 (2011): 6003-6006.
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