RESUMO

Comprehensive electrochemical and operando Raman studies are performed to investigate the electrochemical stability window (ESW) of supercapacitors filled with normal (salt-in-water) and highly concentrated (water-in-salt, WiSE) electrolytes. Impedance and chronoamperometric experiments are employed and combined with cyclic voltammetry to correctly define the ESW for a WiSE-based device. The total absence of water-splitting resulted in phase angles close to -90° in the impedance data. It is verified that a 17 m NaClO4 electrolyte avoids the water-splitting up to 1.8 V. Furthermore, Raman studies under dynamic and static polarization conditions corroborate the existence of a solvent blocking interface (SBI), which inhibits the occurrence of water-splitting. Also, the reversible nature of the charge-storage process is assessed as a function of the applied voltage. At extreme polarization, the SBI structure is disrupted, thus allowing the occurrence of water-splitting and anionic (ClO4-) intercalation between the graphene sheets.