Communications of the ACM
Liberating Devices From Their Power Cords
Researchers at Vanderbilt University have developed a new type of structural energy storage that, they say, will change the way many technologies are developed in the future.
Credit: cepro.com
Vanderbilt University researchers have developed a method for creating materials that can store and discharge significant amounts of electricity while they are subject to realistic static loads and dynamic forces. The researchers say this type of structural energy storage will change the way in which a wide variety of technologies are developed in the future.
"When you can integrate energy into the components used to build systems, it opens the door to a whole new world of technological possibilities," says Vanderbilt professor Cary Pint.
The researchers developed a supercapacitor that stores electricity by assembling electrically charged ions on the surface of a porous material, instead of storing it in chemical reactions, which enables the supercapacitors to charge and discharge in minutes, instead of hours, and to operate for millions of cycles, instead of thousands of cycles like batteries. The researchers say the new structural supercapacitor operates flawlessly in storing and releasing electrical charge while subject to stresses or pressures up to 44 psi and vibrational accelerations over 80 g.
"In an unpackaged, structurally integrated state, our supercapacitor can store more energy and operate at higher voltages than a packaged, off-the-shelf commercial supercapacitor, even under intense dynamic and static forces," Pint says.
From Vanderbilt University
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