Graphene-Based Supercapacitors Could Lead To Battery-Free Electric Cars Within 5 Years

[Playinghardball]

Batteries seem to be the limiting factor in the popularity of electric cars. They are one of the most expensive components of the vehicle, and have limited range compared with gasoline powered vehicles. While there have been some impressive advances in recent years, a team of researchers have created a supercapacitor film that could replace the need for a battery altogether within the next five years. The collaboration between scientists at Rice University and Queensland University of Technology resulted in two papers, published in Journal of Power Sources and Nanotechnology.

The supercapacitor consists of two layers of graphene with an electrolyte layer in the middle. The film is strong, exceedingly thin, and is able to release a large amount of energy in a short amount of time, which is essential.

"Vehicles need an extra energy spurt for acceleration, and this is where supercapacitors come in. They hold a limited amount of charge, but they are able to deliver it very quickly, making them the perfect complement to mass-storage batteries," Marco Notarianni of QUT said in a press release. Notarianni was lead author of the Nanotechnology paper. "Supercapacitors offer a high power output in a short time, meaning a faster acceleration rate of the car and a charging time of just a few minutes, compared to several hours for a standard electric car battery.”

Ordinary batteries take up a large amount of space, whereas the supercapacitor film could be integrated into multiple areas of the vehicle, such as the body panels, roof, floor, and doors. A supercapacitor this large could provide the vehicle with the amount of energy it needs, while making the vehicle itself much lighter.

More here: http://www.iflscience.com/technology/graphene-based-supercapacitors-could-eliminate-batteries-electric-cars-within-5-years

[think]

1. This would sure kick ass. Hope it comes to fruition and soon..... /nt

[longship]

2. Five years? Bull pucky!

Yet another outlandish claim by media, like when I was a child.

Where is my flying car?

And fusion energy short of an H-bomb?

And where is my fucking nuclear powered vacuum sweeper?

ifls posts this kind of crap sometimes. Too often, IMHO.

[bvar22]

3. This doesn't just affect electric cars.

Our rural electric grid does not have the ability for me to sell electricity back to them,
and has no plans to upgrade to a Buy-Back system.
We haven't installed PV Panels because we decline to bring 3/4 TON of Lead Acid batteries to the place we live.

[caraher]

5. I wonder whether this might be of interest...

Posted elsewhere on DU, an alternative to lead-acid batteries

[TexasProgresive]

4. I don't think the author of the article has it right

This quote from Notarianni does not suggest that these "supercapacitors" will replace batteries, but will complement them allowing for fast discharge of power for high acceleration.

"Vehicles need an extra energy spurt for acceleration, and this is where supercapacitors come in. They hold a limited amount of charge, but they are able to deliver it very quickly, making them the perfect complement to mass-storage batteries," Marco Notarianni of QUT said in a press release. Notarianni was lead author of the Nanotechnology paper. "Supercapacitors offer a high power output in a short time, meaning a faster acceleration rate of the car and a charging time of just a few minutes, compared to several hours for a standard electric car battery.”

[Thor_MN]

6. supercapacitor film could be integrated into multiple areas of the vehicle, such as the body panels,

"supercapacitor film could be integrated into multiple areas of the vehicle, such as the body panels, roof, floor, and doors."

I think I would pass on a vehicle that could discharge large amounts of energy in the event of a fender bender. The potential for having the instantaneous release of enough energy to power the car if a body panel gets crumpled is not a good scenario. I prefer the power source in a protected area, we don't need another car that catches on fire in minor accidents.

[jmowreader]

8. Even worse...

Imagine if a car with supercapacitor-laden body panels caught fire, and these panels decided to dump their entire charge into the firefighters trying to put it out.

How about...well, making the supercapacitors into foot-square panels and mounting them in a steel box in the trunk?

[True Blue Door]

7. Storage technology is making leaps and bounds, but...

It's crystallizing into so many different technological frontiers that it's unlikely we're going to see the economic fruits any time soon. More like the soil is being sown for radical, utopian progress over 30 to 40 years.

But solar technology is already on a Moore's Law curve, so even while storage lags it will annihilate the fossil fuel industry. Just completely annihilate it. Because solar is a technology, not a fuel source, so it will never stop getting cheaper as a long-term trend. Ever. It will meet the fossil fuels on a $/kWh basis, then transcend them, then become so radically cheap that the industrial base underpinning the fossil fuel industry can no longer be supported. That will happen in this generation.

I've seen studies claiming that it will only be 1/3 of the market by 2040, but they always have to freeze technology at current levels - an insupportable premise. A study looking at cellphones in the 1980s would be able to make equally "valid" claims about the future market by freezing them at 1980s prices, sizes, and performance.