Les supercondensateurs à base de carbones activés sont caractérisés par une puissance et une cyclabilité supérieures à celles des batteries. Toutefois, en raison de leur faible densité d’énergie, ils sont principalement utilisés comme source de stockage secondaire. Les objectifs de cette thèse étaient d’augmenter l’énergie des supercondensateurs fonctionnant en milieu organique (TEABF4/AN) et de comprendre la répartition des ions dans les pores des carbones activés avant et après la charge des supercondensateurs. Deux approches ont été suivies pour répondre au premier objectif. D’abord nous avons cherché à augmenter la capacité volumique des carbones à 90 F/cm3. Parmi les carbones étudiés, un carbone a attiré notre attention en raison de sa densité d’électrode et de sa capacité élevées. Toutefois, un traitement thermique s’est avéré nécessaire pour réduire la fonctionnalité de surface altérant principalement les performances en vieillissement. Le carbone ainsi traité présente une capacité volumique de 88 F/cm3. Aussi, en s’appuyant sur le principe d’égalité des charges, nous avons mis en place plusieurs systèmes asymétriques carbone/carbone avec des masses et/ou des carbones différents aux deux électrodes. Les configurations optimales permettent de déplacer la fenêtre de stabilité vers des potentiels plus faibles. Les bonnes performances en vieillissement des systèmes asymétriques en masse réalisés au laboratoire nous ont encouragés à réaliser des essais préliminaires sur des composants industriels. Il a ainsi été montré que la dissymétrie de masse permet de ralentir le vieillissement à 2,7 V par rapport à un système symétrique standard. Les analyses RMN de la poudre d’électrodes imprégnées d’électrolyte montrent que les ions et le solvant occupent la porosité en l’absence de polarisation. L’étude des électrodes chargées a montré que les ions se réorganisent dans la porosité. A l’électrode négative, le solvant est exclu de la porosité et les ions TEA+ pénètrent sans leur sphère de solvatation. A l’électrode positive, il reste du solvant, ce qui suggère que les ions BF4 - sont partiellement solvatés dans la microporosité. En augmentant la tension de charge, la quantité d’ions TEA+ and BF4 - augmente respectivement dans les électrodes négative et positive; toutefois des contre-ions restent présents même à tension élevée. / Supercapacitors based on activated carbons are characterized by higher power and cycle life than batteries. Due to their low energy density, they are mainly used as secondary storage device. The objectives of this thesis were to improve the energy density of supercapacitors operating in organic electrolyte (TEABF4/AN) and to elucidate the distribution of ions in the pores of activated carbons, before and after the charge of supercapacitors. Two approaches were followed to reach the first objective. First, it has been attempted to increase the volumetric capacitance up to 90 F/cm3. One carbon giving a high electrode density and capacitance, but having a high amount of oxygenated functionalities, has been identified. It was thermally treated under reducing atmosphere to depress the functionalities which negatively impact the ageing of supercapacitors. The post-treated carbon displayed a volumetric capacitance of 88 F/cm3. Asymmetric carbon/carbon supercapacitors, with different mass or/and different carbons for the electrodes, were constructed for shifting the stability window towards lower potential values. Laboratory cells built in these conditions exhibited promising performance during cycling, which encouraged us to confirm the results at industrial scale. In particular, the asymmetric configuration using electrodes of different mass showed better ageing behavior at 2.7 V that the symmetric system. RMN analysis of the powder from electrodes soaked with the organic electrolyte showed that the solvent and ionic species are already confined into the micropores without applying any polarisation. During charging, the solvent molecules are expelled from the porosity of the negative electrode while TEA+ ions penetrate into the pores without their solvation shell. On the contrary, the presence of some solvent together with BF4 - in the positive electrode indicates that the BF4 - ions are partially solvated. Upon increasing the voltage, the amount of TEA+ and BF4 - increases in the negative and positive electrode, respectively; however, counter ions are still present even at high voltage.

Semiconductor nanocrystals, also referred to as quantum dots (QDs), have been the focus of great scientific and technological efforts in solar cells, as a result of their advantages of low-cost, photostability, high molar extinction coefficients and size-dependent optical properties. Due to the multi-electron generation effect, the theoretically maximum efficiency of quantum dots-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs) is as high as 44%, which is much higher than that of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Thus QDSCs have a clear potential to overtake the efficiency of all other kinds of solar cells. In recent years, the efficiency of QDSCs has been improved very quickly to around 5%. It is however still much lower than that of DSCs. The low efficiency is mostly caused by the high electron loss between electrolyte and electrodes and the lack of an efficient electrolyte. In this thesis, we have been working to enhance the performance of QDSCs with II-VI group nanocrystals by increasing the electron injection efficiency from QDs to TiO2 and developing new redox couples in electrolyte. To increase the electron injection, firstly, colloidal ZnSe/CdS type-II QDs were synthesized and applied for QDSCs for the first time, whose photoelectron and photohole are located on CdS shell and ZnSe core, respectively. The spatial separation between photoelectron and photohole can effectively enhance the charge extraction efficiency, facilitating electron injection, and also effectively expand the absorption spectrum. All these characteristics contribute to the high photon to current conversion efficiency. Furthermore, a comparison between the performances of ZnSe/CdS and CdS/ZnSe QDs shows that the electron distribution is important for the electron injection of the QDs in QDSCs. Secondly, colloidal CdS/CdSe quantum rods (QRs) were applied to a quantum rod-sensitized solar cell (QRSCs) that showed a higher electron injection efficiency than analogous QDSCs. It is concluded that reducing the carrier confinement dimensions of nanocrystals can improve electron injection efficiency of nanocrystal sensitized solar cells. In this thesis, two types of organic electrolytes based McMT-/BMT and TMTU/TMTU-TFO were used for QDSCs. By reducing the charge recombination between the electrolyte and counter electrode, fill factor (FF) of these QDSCs was significantly improved. At the same time, the photovoltages of the QDSCs were remarkably increased. As a result, the overall conversion efficiency of QDSCs based on the new electrolytes was much higher than that with a commonly used inorganic electrolyte. In addition, CdS QDSCs on NiO photoelectrode were studied which shows a n-type photovoltaic performance. This performance is attributed to the formation of a thin Cd metal film before CdS QDs formation on NiO. Since the CB edge of CdS sits between the Fermi level and the CB edge of Cd metal, a much strong electron transfer between Cd and CdS QD is obtained, resulting in the observed n-type photovoltaic performance of these CdS/NiO QDSCs. / QC 20120425