Hydrogel Outperforms Carbon Supercapacitors

Supercapacitors complement batteries in energy storage and delivery schemes both large and small, as they can provide quick bursts of power. However, supercapacitors hold less energy per volume than a typical battery, so they have limited storage capacity.

Changing the electrode material can boost the capacitance, thus improving the energy density. Yi Cui and Zhenan Bao of Stanford University have made a hydrogel using a conducting polymer. When used as electrodes in a supercapacitor, the new material has a capacitance about three times greater than a typical carbon supercapacitor.

It is also cheap to build and operate.  As the polymer can be synthesized using inkjet printing or spray coating each solution on a surface, it is easy to produce on a large scale for possible energy storage applications. The electrolyte is another factor that makes this conducting polymer supercapacitor attractive for low cost, yet high performance, energy devices. This hydrogel uses a cheaper water-based electrolyte compared to the organic ionic liquids used in carbon supercapacitors.

Source and Read More

  

If you want to know more about this and other topics directly from end users of energy storage technologies join us at one of these annual events: The Energy Storage World Forum (Grid Scale Applications), or The Residential Energy Storage Forum, or one of our Training Courses.

LATEST ARTICLES

Product Development: Embracing product safety and compliance

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: EMBRACING PRODUCT SAFETY AND COMPLIANCE Recent safety incidents on storage plants have raised concerns about the fire safety of battery storage systems. Such events are extremely rare compared to the cumulated global deployments of energy storage systems, which have reached more than 27 GWh by end of 2020 (Wood Mackenzie 2021). However, for…

Read More

The UK National Energy Grid – A Story of Islands, Trading, and Energy Storage

As first seen in Energy Global, grid software acts as a modern-day map, helping to chart and navigate today’s energy grids; software engineers are tasked with carefully delineating how each region’s energy markets operate. However, looking more closely at energy markets makes clear how unique each market is – each defined by different topography, resources,…

Read More

★REVIEWS

“Probably the most interactive and well organized storage event on the calendar.”

★★★★★

Sales Director, S&C

“Great topics, competent speakers, good networking: keep it like that.”

★★★★★

TLC & SCADA Manager, FRI-EL

“High scientific content, well targeted, perfect organization.”

★★★★★

Expert Technical & Governance, Elia

Excellent networking event. The sponsorship was well worth it.”

★★★★★

Manager, ATL

View More

x