Green energy storage systems with long-term stability and regenerative capacity are urgently needed in the process of moving towards sustainable electronics. To this end, the research team has developed an environmentally friendly self-healing supercapacitor, which uses chitosan-bonded coconut shell-derived carbon electrodes with gelatin-sodium acetate polymer electrolyte.

The study used a "delayed assembly" process, in which the electrodes were allowed to stand and then gently rehydrated. This improvement optimizes ion accessibility and interfacial wetting. The specific data show that the equivalent series resistance is reduced by about 70%, from about 0.83 Ω to about 0.27 Ω. The specific capacitance increased by about 40%, reaching 109 F/g at 0.4 A/g current density. The energy density increased by about 45% to 15 Wh/kg. In addition, the maximum power density of the device is about 4230 W/kg.

After 550000 cycles, the device can still maintain 95% of the initial capacitance, and can achieve spontaneous recovery of performance through reversible hydrogen bond recombination. This physical regeneration mechanism makes it one of the most durable of the environmentally friendly supercapacitors reported so far.

This design strategy provides a scalable and sustainable path to achieving the durable, high-performance energy storage devices needed for the next generation of sustainable green electronics.