The Influence of the Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) on the Functional Behaviour of Electrochemical Double Layer Capacitors (EDLCs)

Abstract

Supercapacitors, also known as Electrochemical Double Layer Capacitors (EDLCs), are gaining popularity in modern applications such as the automobile sector due to their many advantages. They are often compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries because of their ability to handle high charge/discharge currents, quick charging time, and high number of charge/discharge cycles. In contrast to lithium-ion batteries, the EDLCs’ drawbacks are high values of equivalent series resistance (ESR) and self-discharge current. Therefore, this paper will focus on investigating the ESR, capacitance and self-discharge current of supercapacitors over a wide temperature range of -$20^{\circ} C$ to $+60^{\circ} C$, taking into consideration the working temperature limits specified by the manufacturers in their corresponding datasheets, in relation to the automotive industry. It is crucial to track the variation of these parameters with temperature to assess the supercapacitors’ loss and determine how they affect the behavior of the circuit in a particular application, such as an automobile module. This is especially important when taking into account the fact that supercapacitor datasheets do not contain this information.