Breakthrough In Energy Storage

Breakthrough In Energy Storage: New Carbon Material Shows Promise Of Storing Large Quantities Of Renewable Electrical Energy

Engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have achieved a breakthrough in the use of a one-atom thick structure called "graphene" as a new carbon-based material for storing electrical charge in ultracapacitor devices, perhaps paving the way for the massive installation of renewable energies such as wind and solar power.

The researchers believe their breakthrough shows promise that graphene (a form of carbon) could eventually double the capacity of existing ultracapacitors, which are manufactured using an entirely different form of carbon.

Graphene isn't exactly new, but it is cheap and abundant. This could be very good news if it pans out.

I'm always curious about what happens to a device based on any such new technology if there is an internal short due to mechanical damage.

Bring it on. We need to get off oil as fast as we can.

We are only 1 good electrical storage device with a long lifetime away from renewable energy sources such as solar and geothermal taking over from coal and gas. Making it out of carbon sounds even better, harvest the CO2 in the atmosphere to make green batteries!

In repsonse to safety applications capacitors have gone boom in the past and is certainly a good point in fast charge/discharge batteries. I suspect that with the dielectrics between the plates of graphene, a degree of inbuilt saftey can be managed to mitigate shorts.

Here's yet another breakthrough in energy storage. They're coming thick and fast these days. It's amazing what innovation a jump in petrol price can cause!

“Nano-Titanate” Car Batteries

For example, regarding the longevity of the battery, Altair says “This nano-titanate material is a “zero strain” material in terms of lithium ion internal deposition and release. The lithium ions have the same size as the sites they occupy in the nano-titanate particles. As a result the nano-titanate particles do not have to expand or shrink when the ions are entering or leaving the nano-titanate particles, therefore resulting in no (zero) strain to the nano-titanate material. This property results in a battery that can be charged and discharged significantly more often than conventional rechargeable batteries because of the absence of particle fatigue that plagues materials such as graphite. Conventional lithium batteries can be typically charged about 750 times before they are no longer useful, whereas, in laboratory testing, the Altairnano NanoSafe battery cells have now achieved over 9,000 charge and discharge cycles at charge and discharge rates up to 40 times greater than are typical of common batteries, and they still retain up to 85% charge capacity.”

In their backgrounder on why their battery can charge quickly, Altair makes some noteworthy claims: “By using nano-titanate materials as the negative electrode material, lithium metal plating does not occur because the electro-chemical properties of the nano-titanate allow the deposition of lithium in the particles at high rates. These electrical properties mean that even at very cold temperatures there is no risk of plating. No undesirable interaction takes place with the electrolyte in the Altairnano batteries, which permits the battery to be charged very rapidly, without the risk of shorting or thermal runaway. In fact, in recent laboratory testing, Altairnano has demonstrated that a NanoSafe cell can be charged to over 80% charge capacity in about one minute.”

[edit on 17/9/08 by Shere Khaan]

reply to post by Shere Khaan


Over 9000, they say?

Anybody read Friday by Robert Heinlein? One of the premises is the invention of a device called a shipstone (named after the inventor). It's a cheap, super efficient energy storage device.

If you think something like this can only lead to good--well read the book. The NWO has nothing on what Heinlein envisions.