Progress and challenges of ceramics for supercapacitors

Abstract Supercapacitors (SCs) are one of the most promising electrical energy storage technologies systems due to their fast storage capability, long cycle stability, high power density, and environmental friendliness. Enormous research has focused on the design of nanomaterials to achieve low cost, highly efficient, and stable electrodes. Ceramic materials provide promising candidates for SCs electrodes. However, the low specific surface area and relatively low surface activity severely hinder the SCs performance of ceramic materials. Therefore, the basic understanding of ceramic materials, the optimization strategy, and the research progress of ceramic electrodes are the key steps to enable good electrical conductivity and excellent electron transport capabilities, and realize economically feasible ceramic electrodes in industry. Herein, we review recent achievements in manufacturing the ceramic electrodes for SCs, including metal oxide ceramics, multi-elemental oxide ceramics, metal hydroxide ceramics, metal sulfide ceramics, carbon-based ceramics, carbide and nitride ceramics, and other special ceramics (MXene). We focus on the unique and key factors in the component and structural design of ceramic electrodes, which correlate them with SCs performance. In addition, the current technical challenges and perspectives of ceramic electrodes for SCs are also discussed.