Materials for Electrochemical Energy Storage: Introduction

Energy storage devices (ESD) are emerging systems that could harness a high share of intermittent renewable energy resources, owing to their flexible solutions for versatile applications from mobile electronic devices, transportation, and load-leveling stations to extensive power conditioning. The last decades have witnessed considerable developments in supercapacitors and batteries with superior energy density and remarkably long cycle life that could continually store and deliver much energy to portable and stationary applications. The substantial development of new, cheaper, eco-friendly, superior polymer-based nanocomposites has gained considerable interest in advancing the existing ESD behaviors. The ease of processing, the simple tunability of arrangements, and the synergetic interaction between the polymer and the inorganic counterparts that allow remarkable electronic conductivity, specific surface area, and charge of the nanocomposites have presented great opportunities for economic viability for efficient energy conversion.