A Transient Supercapacitor with a Water-Dissolvable Ionic Gel for Sustainable Electronics

We develop an environmentally benign supercapacitor, which decomposes by contact with water, incorporating an ionic liquid, carbon powder, a cellulose separator, and a molybdenum electrode. The ionic liquid is dispersed into a water-dissolvable polymer, poly(vinyl alcohol), to produce a solid electrolyte, so-called ionic gel. A carbon composite mixed with the ionic liquid maintains a gel form. The ionic gel and the carbon composite enable an all-solid-state supercapacitor, which can be charged at a voltage of 1.5 V. The supercapacitor shows areal and volumetric capacitances of 65 mF/cm2 and 2.2 F/cm3, respectively. A cycle test reveals that capacitance retention and Coulombic efficiency are 77 and 90%, respectively. As for the dissolution test, the ionic gel and carbon composite dissolves in phosphate buffer solution in 18 days, and the Mo electrode is able to fully dissolve in 500-588 days. Potential applications of the environmentally benign supercapacitor include smart agriculture by monitoring of soil and disaster prevention by a wireless sensor network without the need for retrieval of devices after use.