The scientific accident that could change the world.

[rudecherub]

Scalable fabrication of high-power graphene micro-supercapacitors for flexible and on-chip energy storage.

Is this the holy grail of energy storage?

"Remarkably, miniaturizing the devices to the microscale results in enhanced charge-storage capacity and rate capability. These micro-supercapacitors demonstrate a power density of ~200 W cm−3, which is among the highest values achieved for any supercapacitor."

The video & io9

If this means fast charge, long term easy to make & cheap 'batteries' that aren't polluting to make and polluting to dispose of, then it's big news.

Best bit, they did with a domestic standard dvd drive.

Edited by rudecherub on Wednesday 27th February 16:10

[rudecherub]

Odie said:

This and flexible screen technology in my eyes are massive steps forward, cant wait to see what these developments bring in the future.

Flexible, wearable technology is the future and brings us closer to implants.

Fast charging and cheap - charge an electric car as quickly as Petrol into the tank?

This is game changing stuff, based on carbon. It's almost too perfect...

edit. digging deeper.

"Kaner Lab researcher Maher El-Kady found a way to create sheets of graphene a single carbon atom thick by covering a plastic surface with graphite oxide solution and bombarding it with precisely controlled laser light.

English translation: He painted a DVD with a liquid carbon solution and stuck it into a standard-issue DVD burner.

The result: Absurdly cheap graphene sheets one atom thick, which held a surprising amount of charge without further modification."

http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/science/more-good-...

The article ends with a cautious note about magic bullets and unforeseen issues - of course, but still. wow.

Edited by rudecherub on Wednesday 27th February 17:24

[rudecherub]

Huff said:

rudecherub said:

These micro-supercapacitors demonstrate a power density of ~200 W cm−3, which is among the highest values achieved for any supercapacitor."

Totally useless unit dimension - maybe an journo error in the original article.

200watt-hours cm−3 would be enormous. 25x better than anything we have convenient access to. Put another way that's the energy storage of ~24cc of petrol, about the densest form of energy storage for conventional fuels.

But:

200W cm−3, as a peak output from a small capacitor - absolutely nothing to write home about.

NB there's six,seven or more orders of magnitude difference between the two!

Edited by Huff on Wednesday 27th February 21:47

Not my field of experise, but the article claims

"El-Kady and Kaner found a way to embed small electrodes within each graphene unit, and place the whole thing on a flexible substrate that allows the supercapacitor to be bent. The team is already claiming energy density comparable to existing thin-film lithium ion batteries."

http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/science/more-good-...

With regard to flexible screens I await a phone that unfolds to the size of a broad sheet newspaper, but is fully functional in all sizes.