When hard work pays off

Abstract

We all know the adage: work smarter, not harder. Yet, there are times when making things harder—deliberately—can be unexpectedly rewarding. In this reflection, we revisit our study published ten years ago in the inaugural issue of Nanoscale Horizons, where we showed—through simulations and analytical theory—that introducing obstacles in charging microporous electrodes can paradoxically enhance energy storage and break the conventional trade-off between stored energy density and charging speed in electrical double-layer capacitors (S. Kondrat and A. A. Kornyshev, Nanoscale Horiz., 2016, 1, 45–52, https://doi.org/10.1039/C5NH00004A). Herein, we reflect on those original findings and present further examples of the broader principle: that under certain conditions, hindering charging can lead to greater energy storage in systems with low-dimensional (microporous) electrode materials.