FEB 22

If UCLA researchers are correct, a new supercharger could transform both the way we power our electronics and recycle their old sources of energy. Bringing together the quick-charging qualities of a capacitor and the energy-holding capacities of a battery, graphene supercapacitors could replace the often toxic batteries we currently use to power our electronics.

Batteries and capacitors are relatively similar devices, functionally speaking. Standard batteries consist of two chemicals that react with each other, separated by a barrier, and have a circuit between them; capacitors are composed of two oppositely charged metal plates, separated by an insulator, with a circuit between them. When electrons flow through the circuits of batteries and capacitors alike they provide electricity. Although capacitors can be charged very quickly, they don’t hold nearly as much energy as batteries.

Graphene supercapacitors would solve the energy holding problem of capacitors. Graphene conducts electricity better than any other common substance, and the one-atom thick material has more going for it than capacity: it’s also thinner, lighter, and can be turned into cheaper energy-holding devices than batteries. Because it’s carbon-based, it’s also biodegradable. Considering the care we need to take when disposing of batteries that are often made of toxic metals, how much would it rock to be able to compost our disposable charge holders instead?

Extremely flexible and stronger than steel, graphene has been notoriously difficult to work with, as the Focus Forward video describes. The researchers who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 for their work with graphene created the substance by carefully peeling graphite with scotch tape--not a method that’s easy or quick to replicate. However, researchers at UCLA claim they have found a better method to craft the substance in a delightfully MacGyver-like way: by using a consumer-grade DVD drive. After pouring graphite oxide onto CDs, popping the CDs into the drive and using the drive’s laser to beam light on the material, the graphite oxide deoxygenates and becomes graphene. Miles ahead of scotch tape, this DVD drive method produces the essentially two-dimensional material easily and quickly. Imagine what could be done with a machine designed to create sheets of graphene on a larger scale.

Graphene supercapacitors have immense potential to revolutionize the efficiency and environmental-friendliness of our electronics. Especially after listening to the researchers discuss graphene’s potential, it’s difficult not to be excited for the future of this technology. Graphene supercapacitors could charge electronic devices, but further research will determine just how much these supercapacitors can charge (are electric car charging stations really a possibility?), and if and when they'll be available for consumers. In any case, here’s hoping the technology can take off.

image: CC BY-SA 2.0 by CORE-Materials

via: Boing Boing

Comments (5)

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written by 2ndGreenRevolution Blog, February 22, 2013

I'm with you on hoping it can take off. It seems like graphene and other cutting-edge technologies are always publicized but remain in universities indefinitely.

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Invest in graphene
written by Gary Hemmings, February 22, 2013

If you're interested in keeping track of all the developments to do with the commercialisation of this material I suggest bookmarking the website http://investingraphene.com/ Super capacitors are just the start of the story, this material is earmarked for all kinds of amazing uses, an overview of which you'll find at the site.

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Oh Great! Another poison in our environment, Low-rated comment [Show]

Why invest now?
written by Luke P, February 26, 2013

This really seems like a great idea, but mass energy storage for things like electric cars and wind/solar power plants is not currently a good investment. At least, it won't be until energy and car companies start producing cars and power plants that need this kind of storage. Of course, I wish people would invest more now, because it seems so much better than current batteries. Unfortunately, I just think we have to wait until oil becomes expensive enough to make it worthwhile.

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Will see
written by Peter B, April 20, 2013

A step in the right direction. There are two sticking points with graphene supercapacitors. For one, a good, inexpensive way to produce hundreds of square miles of graphene sheets still needs to be introduced, it's hard to see how CD-drives could form the basis of production at this level. But this may provide a way to produce enough at a reasonable price that the other sticking point may be addressed: to make an working actual supercapacitor demonstrator that is in the useful range of at least a few dozens of watthours (to feed for example an LED table lamp).
Super high surface-to-volume materials will be needed to construct really good capacitor banks and graphene sheets may or may not be the answer. But look for a sec at the big picture, imagine people having supercapacitors in their homes, being able to store at least 5-10% of their daily electric use - this could create a power system that is a thousand times more robust than what we have today, and more amenable for the use of the somewhat hectic solar and wind energy sources.

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