Silicon Supercapacitor Promises Built-in Energy Storage For Electronic Devices

Science_afficionado writes "A news release from Vanderbilt University begins, 'Solar cells that produce electricity 24/7, not just when the sun is shining. Mobile phones with built-in power cells that recharge in seconds and work for weeks between charges. These are just two of the possibilities raised by a novel supercapacitor design invented by material scientists ... that is described in a paper published in the Oct. 22 issue of the journal Scientific Reports. It is the first supercapacitor that is made out of silicon so it can be built into a silicon chip along with the microelectronic circuitry that it powers. In fact, it should be possible to construct these power cells out of the excess silicon that exists in the current generation of solar cells, sensors, mobile phones and a variety of other electromechanical devices, providing a considerable cost savings. ... Instead of storing energy in chemical reactions the way batteries do, “supercaps” store electricity by assembling ions on the surface of a porous material. As a result, they tend to charge and discharge in minutes, instead of hours, and operate for a few million cycles, instead of a few thousand cycles like batteries.' The full academic paper is available online."

Comments

Meh

[DCFusor]

Call me when a supercap has anything like the energy density - by any measure of cubic or weight - as a battery. Till then, they have only niche uses. I've seen various supercap articles that were about tech that was "About to change the world" for how many decades now? OK, sooner or later, they might...I'm still waiting, and I ain't gonna live for as many more decades as I've already been waiting. Till then, I'll drive my Volt.

Re:Meh

[amirulbahr]

Capacitors used on your motherboard are mostly there as part of filter circuits and therefore chosen for their unique transient response (i.e. exactly how they behave over time once a voltage is applied). In other words, the discharge rate matters. Can't be too fast, can't be too slow.

Designing silicon based super caps for long term energy storage with slow discharge does not automatically mean that the same tech will replace regular electrolytic caps. I'm not saying they won't, haven't even read TFA, but the design goals are certainly distinct.

This will be a GREAT way

[Spy Handler]

to provide electricity for my flying car, and my holographic storage disks too!

Release Date???

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate these kind of articles. If there's no release date and price what is the purpose. If I had a dime for every "breakthrough" that never resulted in an actual product I could pay off the national debt.