Investigation of electrochemical properties of tri- and tetravalent boronate ester compounds for supercapacitor applications

The motivation of the current study is to use the synthesized tri- and tetravalent boronate esters (C15H16BNO3 center dot HCl(B-1) and C40H42B2Cl2N4O4, (B-2)), respectively, for the first time as electrodes in the presence of different electrolyte solutions in supercapacitor applications and to measure their specific capacitances. As a result of the electrochemical measurements, it is determined by experimental observations that the specific capacitance value of the tetravalent (B-2) electrode is higher than that of trivalent (B-1) in the presence of both different electrolyte solutions. Furthermore, when the morphological properties of both materials are examined, it is observed that tetravalent boronate ester (B-2) has a more porous structure and its surface area is higher than trivalent boronate ester (B-1) as a conclusion of the surface area measurement. As a consequence of this research, it has been demonstrated that tetravalent boronate ester (B-2) can be employed as a promising material for future supercapacitor energy storage applications.