Cost-trivial material contributes greatly: A review of the application of starch in energy storage systems

With the increasing demand for the renewable and sustainable energy, various electrochemical systems have been developed. However, certain traditional batteries and capacitors more or less involve the issues of using non-renewable raw materials or causing environmental pollution, which is obviously against the original intention for developing the new energy technology to achieve the completely clean and sustainable energy system. As a renewable and widely available material, starch is entirely green and has already attracted attentions from researchers in the new energy field in recent years owing to its distinctive properties that it can be easily modified and combined with other functional materials to obtain different features. Additionally, it can also be thermally dextrinized into a gel state or carbonized into starch carbon, enabling it to be applied in multiple scenarios to meet different research requirements. Concerning on the versatility and potentiality, this work reviews the application of starch in various batteries and supercapacitors, in order to shed light on the further development and application of this cost-trivial material.