How a Microscopic Supercapacitor Will Supercharge Mobile Electronics
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How a Microscopic Supercapacitor Will Supercharge Mobile Electronics
1–10 of 16 posts
Re: How a Microscopic Supercapacitor Will Supercharge Mobile Electronics
#2What's especially remarkable about this process is how they're using an every-day piece of electronics, a Lightscribe, a DVD burner basically, to do the production.
They need a laser with precision control and where better to find one than in a device like that.
Re: How a Microscopic Supercapacitor Will Supercharge Mobile Electronics
#3I was talking with someone about this the other day, the amount of energy you can store in graphene capacitors (potentially) is pretty impressive. The trick is not turning them into bombs at that point.
I expect that we'll see a lot more in this space over the next 6 to 18 months. Perhaps it was what Elon was eluding too with his range statements.
Re: How a Microscopic Supercapacitor Will Supercharge Mobile Electronics
#4Together with a battery, such supercapacitors could run a cellphone for days.
Really? That's novel.
One of the proposed applications is for bursty current applications which currently have batteries with more capacity than required in order to serve peek current demands, but I rather doubt cell phones are in that category.
Re: How a Microscopic Supercapacitor Will Supercharge Mobile Electronics
#5I was talking with someone about this the other day, the amount of energy you can store in graphene capacitors (potentially) is pretty impressive. The trick is not turning them into bombs at that point. I expect that we'll see a lot more in this space over the next 6 to 18 months. Perhaps it was what Elon was eluding too with his range statements.
This is true of all energy storage. Your laptop lithium-ion batteries are pretty decent fire starters when shorted correctly (incorrectly?). This is why there is so much safety circuitry in batteries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCGtRgBUHX8
Another way to think about it is to compare Energy Density to larger scale things we have closer experiences with, such as Gasoline
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density
The difference between a fire and explosion is really how quickly you can release the energy potential, so capacitors should be rather interesting in that case.
Re: How a Microscopic Supercapacitor Will Supercharge Mobile Electronics
#6I was talking with someone about this the other day, the amount of energy you can store in graphene capacitors (potentially) is pretty impressive. The trick is not turning them into bombs at that point. I expect that we'll see a lot more in this space over the next 6 to 18 months. Perhaps it was what Elon was eluding too with his range statements.
isn't the real issue volume? (energy density).
Re: How a Microscopic Supercapacitor Will Supercharge Mobile Electronics
#7What's especially remarkable about this process is how they're using an every-day piece of electronics, a Lightscribe, a DVD burner basically, to do the production. They need a laser with precision control and where better to find one than in a device like that.
> a Lightscribe, a DVD burner basically,
Lightscribe IS a DVD burner; in addition to burning DVDs, it lets you write patterns on the other (non-data) side. This uses that ability to etch the solution poured on the top.
Re: How a Microscopic Supercapacitor Will Supercharge Mobile Electronics
#8I was talking with someone about this the other day, the amount of energy you can store in graphene capacitors (potentially) is pretty impressive. The trick is not turning them into bombs at that point. I expect that we'll see a lot more in this space over the next 6 to 18 months. Perhaps it was what Elon was eluding too with his range statements.
This is true of all energy storage. Your laptop lithium-ion batteries are pretty decent fire starters when shorted correctly (incorrectly?). This is why there is so much safety circuitry in batteries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCGtRgBUHX8 Another way to think about it is to compare Energy Density to larger scale things we have closer experiences with, such as Gasoline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_densit…
The trick with capacitors such as these is that you are talking 1nm spacing between the layers. It doesn't take much to punch through a layer, and if that releases enough energy to get through the next, then you might have an exciting day.
The thinnest metalized, plastic film capacitors have a plastic film 600nm thick.¹
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¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_capacitor wherein you will also learn that the process of making the ends of the metalized plastic conductive by a "schoopage" process, named after Max Schoop who invented combustion spray method for the application of tin and lead. And now I am lost down the internet wormhole, "Detonation thermal spraying" is a thing! Explode your contacts into place!
Re: How a Microscopic Supercapacitor Will Supercharge Mobile Electronics
#9I was talking with someone about this the other day, the amount of energy you can store in graphene capacitors (potentially) is pretty impressive. The trick is not turning them into bombs at that point. I expect that we'll see a lot more in this space over the next 6 to 18 months. Perhaps it was what Elon was eluding too with his range statements.
This is true of all energy storage. Your laptop lithium-ion batteries are pretty decent fire starters when shorted correctly (incorrectly?). This is why there is so much safety circuitry in batteries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCGtRgBUHX8 Another way to think about it is to compare Energy Density to larger scale things we have closer experiences with, such as Gasoline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_densit…
Yep, all batteries and capacitors amount to is electron storage devices.
Capacitors are much more prone to becoming coulomb bombs than batteries mostly because they are designed to discharge quickly, which is what makes them implicitly good bombs. It doesn't take much electron movement to make an explosion.
In fact, this is how alkali metals react with water. We learnt that only in the past few years.
http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v7/n3/full/nchem.2161.ht...
Re: How a Microscopic Supercapacitor Will Supercharge Mobile Electronics
#10I was talking with someone about this the other day, the amount of energy you can store in graphene capacitors (potentially) is pretty impressive. The trick is not turning them into bombs at that point. I expect that we'll see a lot more in this space over the next 6 to 18 months. Perhaps it was what Elon was eluding too with his range statements.
This is true of all energy storage. Your laptop lithium-ion batteries are pretty decent fire starters when shorted correctly (incorrectly?). This is why there is so much safety circuitry in batteries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCGtRgBUHX8 Another way to think about it is to compare Energy Density to larger scale things we have closer experiences with, such as Gasoline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_densit…
Agree - rate of energy release is everything.
A pound of hamburger releases about 1152 kcal, or about 4.8 megaJoules of energy when metabolized over a day or so after it's eaten.
One pound of TNT releases about 2 megaJoules of energy in a few microseconds when it's detonated.
Big difference in the results. One makes me fat. The other makes me dead.
I'd be worried about a super capacitor that contained a week's worth of my laptop energy, and that might release it in a second.