Dilute aqueous hybrid electrolyte endows a high-voltage window for supercapacitors.

Developing aqueous electrolyte with wide electrochemical stability window (ESW) is one of the key technologies to boosting the energy density of aqueous electrochemical double-layer capacitors (EDLCs). However, expanding the ESW using super-concentrated electrolytes comes at the expense of cost, ionic conductivity and the mass density of the device. Herein, we selected a cost-effective and environmentally friendly molecular crowding agent, polyethylene glycol dimethyl ether (PEGDME-250), as the electrolyte additive designed to achieve high ESW at low salt concentrations. First, PEGDME can reduces the activity of water and increases the ESW of the electrolyte by forming hydrogen bonds with free water molecule. In addition, PEGDME does not have the interaction between terminal groups compared to conventional polyethylene glycols (PEG), which helps to reduce the viscosity and improve the ionic conductivity of the electrolyte. By adjusting the composition of the electrolyte, the optimal electrolyte with a high ESW of 2.96 V was achieved with the formula of 3 m NaClO 4 -25 % H 2 O-75 % PEGDME. The EDLCs assembled with this diluted aqueous electrolyte and YP-50 F electrodes presents a high operational voltage window of 2.4 V and outstanding cycle stability (>10000 cycles), and maintains excellent rate performance in a temperature range of −10–35 ℃. • The addition of PEGDME reduces the activity of free water molecules. • Low concentration aqueous electrolyte realized electrochemical stabilization window of 2.96 V. • The EDLCs with optimized electrolyte and YP-50 F activated carbon were assembled. • The EDLCs were able to cycle 10,000 cycles at an operating voltage of 2.4 V. • The EDLCs were capable to maintain 72.3 % capacity when the current density increasing from 1 A g−1 to 10 A g−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]