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posted by martyb on Wednesday March 07 2018, @10:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the resistance-is-futile dept.

A number of companies are developing advanced supercapacitors in the hopes of replacing or augmenting lithium-ion batteries:

Dr Donald Highgate, director of research at Superdielectrics Ltd, says a material he originally developed for soft contact lenses is also surprisingly good at holding an electrostatic field. [...] Dr Highgate is working with Bristol and Surrey universities to develop supercapacitors using the new polymer and hopes that they could eventually rival, or even surpass, lithium-ion (li-ion) batteries - so long as they manage to replicate prototype performance on a large scale.

[...] Taavi Madiberk, chief executive and co-founder of Skeleton Technologies, a supercapacitor maker based in Estonia, Germany and Finland, says his products incorporate layers of graphene - a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice - and other carbon-based materials in its supercapacitors. These layers have a huge surface area - just 1g of graphene can cover 2,000 sq m, says Mr Madiberk. This allows them to hold on to a lot more power.

[...] But he acknowledges that in the short-term, combining supercapacitors with li-ion batteries is probably the best way to enjoy the best of both worlds, particularly in electric vehicles. Ulrik Grape, chief executive of NaWa technologies, another supercapacitor maker based in the South of France, agrees, saying: "Supercapacitors don't store as much energy but their response is instantaneous. So a supercapacitor could handle acceleration and energy recovery under braking - taking care of the stressful part of a battery's life - possibly doubling or tripling a battery's life expectancy."

NaWa's technology involves electrodes made from "vertically aligned carbon and graphene nanotubes that can store the energy on the surface of these tubes," explains Mr Grape. [...] A Formula E racing car's battery, currently made by Williams Advanced Engineering, weighs 300kg, but this could be reduced by a third to 200kg, NaWa believes, without any loss of range.

[...] Of course, supercapacitors don't mean the end of traditional batteries by any means. Li-ion technology is still being improved by about 5-10% each year.

Related: Hemp Nanosheets Topple Graphene for Making Ideal Supercapacitor
Nitrogen can Triple Energy Capacity of Supercapacitors
Researchers Use 3D Printing to Make Ultrafast Graphene Supercapacitor
"Cyborg Rose" Contains Fully Functioning Supercapacitors
All-Nanotube Stretchable Supercapacitor With Low Equivalent Series Resistance


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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday March 07 2018, @11:45PM (1 child)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Wednesday March 07 2018, @11:45PM (#649230) Homepage Journal

    - YOU DO!

    Purchase the largest electrolytic capacitor you can find or connect several of them in parallel.

    Charge the cap with a nine volt battery.

    Touch the cap to a doorknob.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @01:46AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @01:46AM (#649271)

    Charge the cap with a nine volt battery

    I tried. The battery exploded about 1 minute in the process.