Graphene Makes Quick-Charge Super Capacitors

The most annoying problem with re-chargeable electric batteries is that they can take a long time to charge.  From electronic devices to electric car batteries... nobody likes waiting for the juice to be re-filled.

But one of graphene's more interesting properties is its ability to conduct electrons in such a way that very few electrons are "lost" in the process of charging.   As I wrote about a while ago, its conductive properties are powerful.  Now imagine all that power being conducted mega-efficiently into a very strong capacitor.  Capacitors are essentially miniature silos of energy storage.  A "super" capacitor is a stronger capacitor¹, and a micro-supercapacitor is next.

"...Researchers at UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute have successfully combined two nanomaterials to create a new energy storage medium that combines the best qualities of batteries and supercapacitors.

The new hybrid supercapacitor stores large amounts of energy, recharges quickly and can last for more than 10,000 recharge cycles. The CNSI scientists also created a microsupercapacitor that is small enough to fit in wearable or implantable devices. Just one-fifth the thickness of a sheet of paper, it is capable of holding more than twice as much charge as a typical thin-film lithium battery.  

"The microsupercapacitor is a new evolving configuration, a very small rechargeable power source with a much higher capacity than previous lithium thin-film microbatteries," El-Kady said.

The new components combine laser-scribed graphene, or LSG—a material that can hold an electrical charge, is very conductive, and charges and recharges very quickly—with manganese dioxide, which is currently used in alkaline batteries because it holds a lot of charge and is cheap and plentiful. They can be fabricated without the need for extreme temperatures or the expensive "dry rooms" required to produce today's supercapacitors."   - Source:  Phys.org

1.  The difference between Capacitors and Super-capacitors:

• Super-capacitors have a very high energy density than normal capacitors.

• Super-capacitors use two layers of the dielectric material separated by a very thin insulator surface as the dielectric medium, whereas normal capacitors use only a single layer of dielectric material.

• Normal capacitors are much cheaper than the super-capacitors in general.

Source:  http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-capacitors-and-vs-supercapacitors/