Graphene Supercapacitors Can Charge Up to 1000x Faster Than Today's Batteries

[Guest]

Electrochemical capacitors, commonly called supercapacitors, have recently gained some attention as potential battery replacements.

Graphene Supercapacitors Can Charge Up to 1000x Faster Than Today's Batteries : Read more

 

[teodoreh]

We finally found the first person who actually used LightScribe on his DVDRW ;D

 

[friskiest]

I actually blinked twice once I got to the disk/Lightscribe part, anyway, these supercapacitors should solve the long charge times for current e-vehicles.

 

[speakmymind]

don't know how many charge/discharge cycles you can get it out of this thing

 

[joytech22]

So your saying.. Part of the manufacturing process involves putting a CD into a Lightscribe drive?
Also, they should implement it ASAP before it just dies like that Kony thing into the back of peoples minds.

 

[fixxxer113]

clever use of Lighscribe. If you think of it, it's actually a high precision laser etching tool!

 

[__-_-_-__]

these have been around since many many years ago. Yet we don't see any practical application of the technology that could save the world.

 

[IndignantSkeptic]

FFS when are we gonna get graphene technology finally? is there anything that graphene cannot do perfectly yet?

 

[southernshark]

[citation][nom]IndignantSkeptic[/nom]FFS when are we gonna get graphene technology finally? is there anything that graphene cannot do perfectly yet?[/citation]


I suspect that it will come onto the scene the same time that safe and inexpensive hair cloning is released.

 

[chomlee]

I am not sure of the advantage yet. Havent capacitors always had the ability to charge much faster than a battery? The issue is that it discharges pretty much as fast as it charges and you can't store the power for long periods of time like a battery, correct? If I am wrong and you can hold the charge, then great. Otherwise I don't really see the imediate benefit.

 

[CaedenV]

[citation][nom]teodoreh[/nom]We finally found the first person who actually used LightScribe on his DVDRW ;D[/citation]
LOL, when lightscribe first came out I thought it was cool, but quickly realized that it was far cheaper/easier and looked better to simply use a sharpie.

[citation][nom]speakmymind[/nom]don't know how many charge/discharge cycles you can get it out of this thing[/citation]
Indeed. My bet is that it would 1) be even more incredibly expensive than current batteries (especially if the manufacturing process requires you to run a DVD duplication plant to make your product lol). And 2) Either break down easier than current battery tech, or else have a much small capacity/range because these types of caps are generally meant for immediate use rather than long-slow usage... but imagine an electric motorcycle on one of these thing for a drag race

I don't mean to say that the electric car will never catch on, but the quickest route to get it to work is to move over to nuclear power plants, and have them make hydrogen fuel cells during non-peak hours. It is relatively cheap, it is extremely clean (MUCH cleaner than normal battery tech), has more stable/longer lasting power, better capacity for longer ranges, less weight than batteries, no worrying about battery memories or other battery care issues... I mean really the only reason we will never do this is because of nuclear tech being such a hot-button issue and there is (until we get alge making it for us) no other easy way to make the hydrogen in mass.

 

[danwat1234]

This is great tech, but to recharge an electric car or laptop or what have you 'x' number of times quicker, the voltage adapter may have to be 'x' times larger to deal with the 'x' times more heat generated from the voltage conversion.

 

[kcorp2003]

[citation][nom]speakmymind[/nom]don't know how many charge/discharge cycles you can get it out of this thing[/citation]

^ this.

 

[lahawzel]

You people could just read the Wikipedia article on supercapacitors instead of asking all these questions, you know...

 

[kikireeki]

A very good advancement, but a lot of such news has emerged in the past two years, and we yet to see anything making its way into production.

 

[aplusbex]

[citation][nom]speakmymind[/nom]don't know how many charge/discharge cycles you can get it out of this thing[/citation]
Since those are capacitors and there is no chemical reaction involved almost infinite under normal conditions also with no lost of performance during their lifetime.

 

[Au_equus]

[citation][nom]aplusbex[/nom]Since those are capacitors and there is no chemical reaction involved almost infinite under normal conditions also with no lost of performance during their lifetime.[/citation]
how do you think graphene stores the charge? this capacitor works through the simultaneous oxidation of graphene to graphene oxide and its reduction back to graphene via laser or electrical current. you have chemicals and a supply of energy, thus new bonds can be broken and new ones formed. very few things have 'infinte lifetimes' and this one is not among them

 

[sporkimus]

Won't make much difference. Soon as the added performance of the batteries are available, there will be technology in place to use it all up... hence making it last no longer than the current batteries of today. Pretty much how it goes for anything. Extra performance is made available and then that performance is soaked up by additional features.

 

[fonzy]

Just like every other breakthrough we see in the news for what ever reason it won't see the light of day.

 

[jkflipflop98]

[citation][nom]john_4[/nom]Been asking this question for a long time, "Why not use a big capacitor or bank of smaller ones instead of batteries" The life expectancy would greatly increase. Sadly, there has been allot of good inventions throughout history that have been buried because of political/corporate shenanigans.[/citation]

Because in order to use a bank of capacitors like a battery you need a lot of voltage regulation hardware to go with it. It's cheaper and easier in the end to just use a battery.

 

[thegreatms]

The real question is can this scale to a viable production level. It can take years (or forever) to transition from a cool university lab test to a real product.

First you have to make the size of your capacitor/battery large enough to be useful. Then you have to find a way to make thousands or millions of them. While keeping the cost to a level that will be acceptable in the market.

These are the reasons that we see an article like the above ever few weeks, but radical improvements only happen ever few years, or more.

 

[rosen380]

[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]LOL, when lightscribe first came out I thought it was cool, but quickly realized that it was far cheaper/easier and looked better to simply use a sharpie.[/citation]

Like NASA spending billions to research and create the Space Pen, so they can write in zero-g [standard pens will not]... and the Russians chose to use pencils instead...

 

[sinfulpotato]

I wonder how safe these will be. I know current lithium batteries can pack quite the punch.

 

[cyprod]

[citation][nom]rosen380[/nom]Like NASA spending billions to research and create the Space Pen, so they can write in zero-g [standard pens will not]... and the Russians chose to use pencils instead...[/citation]
Why do people keep repeating this? It's not true, find one case of NASA funding this! NASA started off using pencils. Then some company, I want to say it was Bic, but I can't remember who made it originally, developed a pressurized pen on their own volition and marketed it to NASA. NASA was perfectly content with pencils, but switched to pens due to their advantages with longevity of marks and resistance to being rubbed off since a COTS product was available cheaply.

 

[saturnus]

This might be ok when we talk small battery pack like those used in a smart phone and laptop. For EVs the problem becomes the delivery system that is going to charge the batteries or ultracaps of the future.

Let's take a Tesla battery at 56KWh as what would be standard for a long range EV of the future. If we assume we can get conversion and terminal losses down under 10% then we can say 60KW is required to charge the battery pack. Over the normal 4 hour charge time that's 15KWh. That's 65A @ 230V or 37½A @ 400V. Doable on a household circuit if it's a fairly recent install, or can be achieved relatively inexpensively.

Now if you have to charge it 1000 times faster, ie. in about 14½ seconds, that'll mean that you'd need something that can supply 15MWh. It's totally impossible to do in anything that is even remotely safe to handle by a consumer. Even at 92% conversion efficiency as assumed above the waste heat generated will be equal to 1000 electric kettles. Might only be for 14 seconds but it'll melt your car in that time, even if it's made of metal.

Far more realistic goal is just 50 times faster that today. It will mean a full recharge will take about 5 minutes. Or less time as takes to fill up a gas tank at a petrol station. It could be possible to transfer the needed 750KW but it will be problematic to make it safe enough. And it'll also require that each filling station would have it's own transformer station. And maybe use a large bank of ultracaps as buffers.