Unraveling the mechanism of potassium metal capacitor for highly efficient charge storage

Although hybrid metal ion capacitors (MICs) are highly desired to achieve both high power density of supercapacitors and high energy density of rechargeable batteries, the mismatch problem of electrochemical kinetics of negative and positive electrodes in MICs hampers the realization of this goal. Here, a new hybrid capacitor concept-potassium metal capacitor (PMC) is proposed for the first time, where potassium metal and commercial activated carbon (AC) without any modification are applied as negative and positive electrodes, respectively, and the electrolyte is the same as that of non-aqueous potassium ion batteries. The simplest PMC prototype exhibits a good combination of high energy density (184.9 Wh kg−1) and power density (12.4 kW kg−1), which benefits from the synergistic effect of potassium metal and AC electrode. The former experiences fast potassium plating/striping during charging and discharging, and the later possesses complex multiple charge behaviors driven by low potential of potassium metal. Specifically, below open-circuit voltage, transportation of solvated cations in AC pores plays an important role; beyond this voltage, synergy actions of cations and anions, including adsorption/desorption of solvated cations and anions, and ions exchange between them, dominate the capacitance contribution. This work enriches the types of MICs, and deepens the understanding of the energy storage mechanism of non-aqueous hybrid metal capacitors.