Indian Scientists Pioneer Eco-Friendly Material for Next-Gen Supercapacitors

Published: 07 Jul 2025

Author: Precedence Research

Share :

Indian scientists have presented a major scientific breakthrough in developing new green energy materials that hold the potential to transform energy storage technology. In collaboration with Aligarh Muslim University, researchers from the Center for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences, Bengaluru, have developed a compound that significantly enhances the performance of supercapacitors, known as Lanthanum-doped silver niobate. 

Supercapacitors are majorly popular for their instant charging and discharging capability. However, they fall short while storing energy for a longer period. This could have been a barrier for many years to the efficient usage of capacitors in various applications. Nonetheless, this new innovative material combats this limitation by offering high energy density without compromising stability and speed. 

A research team led by Dr. Kavita Pandey revealed a rare earth element, lanthanum, into silver niobate nanoparticles to help enhsance their electrical conductivity and reduce particle size, which increases surface area. This new method offers a significant 118% retention of energy after back-to-back usage along with 100% coulombic efficiency, showcasing no energy loss during charging cycles. It was an unprecedented moment for the researcher’s team. 

The Department of Science and Technology said, “The lanthanum atoms shrank the size of the silver niobate nanoparticles, increasing the surface area available for energy storage and improving electrical conductivity. This allows the supercapacitor to charge and discharge energy faster while also retaining a significant amount of it." Lanthanum is renowned for its electronic properties, and it is therefore being utilized by researchers to achieve high storage capacity in capacitors, which in turn scales up and increases commercial production worldwide.  

To showcase the real-world application of this new material, an LCD has been operated by a prototype asymmetric supercapacitor utilizing the newly launched material, lanthanum-doped silver niobate. According to a study published in the Journal of Alloys and Compounds, lanthanum-doped AgNbO3 is identified as a leading candidate for eco-friendly energy storage with high performance. By knowing this, researchers now set a target to find similar kinds of materials with the same doping strategy, which has led to higher production for commercial use.