Electrochemical Capacitors: Fundamentals to Applications

Electrochemical capacitors (EC) represent a burgeoning and diverse class of energy-storage technologies that promise to bridge the performance gap between high-power capacitors and high energy density batteries. In this Focus Issue of the Journal of The Electrochemical Society (JES), the journal seeks to capture the state-of-the-art in EC research, which now spans a broad variety of subtopics ranging from the development of new charge-storing materials to the application of advanced characterization tools that provide new insights on key mechanisms to the use of modeling/computation to understand and predict fundamental EC processes. This Focus Issue includes three perspective-style articles that discuss critical questions for present EC research, including the proper use of the term, 'pseudocapacitance,? the pros and cons of increasingly popular 'redox electrolyte? ECs, and the often-overlooked but critical performance property of self-discharge. The bulk of the issue is devoted to primary research articles solicited from an international cast of prominent researchers in the field of ECs, who share their latest results with JES readers.