Breakthrough In Use of Graphene For Ultracapacitors

Hugh Pickens writes "Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have achieved a breakthrough in the use of a one-atom thick graphene for storing electrical charge in ultracapacitors. They believe their development shows promise that graphene could eventually double the capacity of existing ultracapacitors. 'Through such a device, electrical charge can be rapidly stored on the graphene sheets, and released from them as well for the delivery of electrical current and, thus, electrical power,' says one of the researchers. Two main methods exist to store electrical energy: in rechargeable batteries and in ultracapacitors, which are becoming increasingly commercialized but are not yet well known to the public. Some advantages of ultracapacitors over traditional energy storage devices such as batteries include: higher power capability, longer life, a wider thermal operating range, lighter, more flexible packaging and lower maintenance. Graphene has a surface area of 2,630 square meters, almost the area of a football field, per gram of material."

Comments

Re:How?

[Paradigm_Complex]

2D area vs mass. What that statement was trying to get across was that graphene is so thin that you could almost cover a football field with only a gram of it. Think of spreading cream cheese on a bagel. You only have a gram of cream cheese, though, so you have to spread very, very thin. Except the bagel is the size of a football field, so you have to spread it even more ridiculously thin: only an atom thick. Now instead of cream cheese it's carbon atoms.

graphene surface area

[metalcup]

I found this image from Nature magazine useful in imagining how 1 gm of graphene can have such a large surface area..

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v427/n6974/fig_tab/nature02311_F1.html