Sustainable Selection of Supercapacitor Electrode Materials Using a Life-Cycle-Informed Hybrid FUCOM–MEREC–MARCOS Framework

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor, College of Farabi, University of Tehran, Iran

2 M.Sc. Student in Industrial Management, Nooretouba Electronic Institute of Higher Education, Tehran, Iran

10.22091/jaem.2026.15944.1045

Abstract

The sustainable development of supercapacitor energy storage systems requires electrode materials that provide not only desirable electrochemical performance but also acceptable economic, environmental, and life-cycle characteristics. This study proposes a life-cycle-informed hybrid multi-criteria decision-making framework for the sustainable selection of supercapacitor electrode materials. The proposed framework integrates the Full Consistency Method (FUCOM), the Method based on the Removal Effects of Criteria (MEREC), and the Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking according to Compromise Solution (MARCOS). FUCOM and MEREC were independently applied to expert judgments and the alternative–criterion decision matrix, respectively. After normalization, the subjective and objective weight vectors were combined through a convex integration coefficient, with α=0.5 used as the base scenario. The resulting hybrid weights were subsequently applied to the original decision matrix within MARCOS to calculate the alternatives’ final utility scores and rankings. The results showed that synthesis cost, raw material availability in Iran, energy consumption during synthesis, specific capacitance, and production scalability were the most influential criteria. Among the investigated alternatives, biomass-derived activated carbon achieved the highest final utility score and was identified as the most sustainable option, followed by MnO₂–carbon composite and conducting polymer–carbon composite. Comparative validation using TOPSIS and CoCoSo confirmed the reliability of the ranking results, and sensitivity analysis demonstrated the stability of the top-ranked alternatives under different weighting scenarios. The findings highlight that high electrochemical performance alone is not sufficient for sustainable material selection and that life-cycle-related criteria should be integrated into electrode material evaluation.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Advances in Energy and Materials Research

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 08 September 2025

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics