Micellization of a starch-poly(1,4-butylene succinate) nano-hybrid for enhanced energy storage

In this work, we report on a reverse micellization approach to prepare uncarbonized starch and poly(1,4-butylene succinate) hybrids with exceptional charge storage performance. Uncarbonized starch was activated through protonation, hybridized with poly (1,4-butylene succinate), configured into conductive reverse micelles, and incorporated with magnetite nanoparticles. Before magnetite incorporation, the maximum specific capacitance (C_sp), energy density (E_d), power density (P_d) and retention capacity (%) of the reverse micelles were estimated to be 584 F g⁻¹, 143 W h kg⁻¹, 2356 W kg and 97.5%. After magnetite incorporation, we achieved a maximum supercapacitive performance of 631 F g⁻¹, 204 W h kg⁻¹, 4371 W kg⁻¹and 98%. We demonstrate that the use of magnetite incorporated St-PBS reverse micelles minimizes the contact resistance between the two supercapacitor electrodes, resulting in high charge storage capacity.