Now THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY.

by **tzor** on Mon Feb 18, 2013 6:57 pm

Forget about the booze pill. If you want to understand the 21st century you need to understand THIS ...

The Super Supercapacitor! And you can make them with only a simple CD ROM burner! Because they are made with carbon - completely biodegradable!

by **ender516** on Mon Feb 18, 2013 10:48 pm

That could be world changing. Even if they never scale up to electric vehicle size, just imagine the impact of eliminating all the batteries you use in your daily life.

by **nietzsche** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 1:22 am

FINALLY! Batteries is the one thing about technology and scientists that pisses me off.

I hope they are ready before I turn 40. Take them from the scientist and give them to an entrepreneur now please.

by **TA1LGUNN3R** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:31 am

I remember reading that a while back... iirc they said that it would be possible to make it so that your devices could be quick-charged fully in just about no time at all (seconds-minutes) and still have regular use time. That would be great. Also that it would cut down on precious metals dependence. Fascinating stuff.

-TG

by **ender516** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 12:57 pm

TA1LGUNN3R wrote:I remember reading that a while back... iirc they said that it would be possible to make it so that your devices could be quick-charged fully in just about no time at all (seconds-minutes) and still have regular use time. That would be great. Also that it would cut down on precious metals dependence. Fascinating stuff.

-TG

Not only would we get away from rare-earth metals and the hazards of mining, I bet we could actually create this stuff from CO2 which could be a net benefit to the atmosphere (provided it doesn't take too much energy to get from carbon dioxide to graphene).

by **AndyDufresne** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:12 pm

Ender, I nominate you to be CC's liason with the developers, so we can get first dibs.

--Andy

by **rdsrds2120** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:21 pm

What a great piece of technology. With a name like super-super-capacitor, I'm hooked. Forget those lame batteries.

BMO

by **AndyDufresne** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:33 pm

Imagine, an entire generation that will have never licked a battery. The world is changing.

--Andy

by **rdsrds2120** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:42 pm

AndyDufresne wrote:Imagine, an entire generation that will have never licked a battery. The world is charging.

--Andy

Fixed.

BMO

by **jonesthecurl** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:15 pm

Are you positive?

by **rdsrds2120** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:16 pm

jonesthecurl wrote:Are you positive?

Watt are you implying, that I'd waste my time?

BMO

by **TA1LGUNN3R** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:17 pm

rdsrds2120 wrote:
jonesthecurl wrote:Are you positive?

Watt are you implying, that I'd waste my time?

BMO

Negative.

-TG

by **jonesthecurl** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:17 pm

ion ly asked.

by **rdsrds2120** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:25 pm

Wi-re we doing this?

BMO

by **TA1LGUNN3R** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:26 pm

I can ohmly guess we're bored.

-TG

by **jonesthecurl** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:29 pm

...talkin 'bout my generation...

by **rdsrds2120** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:38 pm

TA1LGUNN3R wrote:I can ohmly guess we're bored.

-TG

Powerful stuff, here.

BMO

by **AndyDufresne** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 4:29 pm

AndyDufresne wrote:Imagine, an entire generation that will have never licked a battery. The world is changing.

Imagine, an entire generation that will only ever associate "battery" with "assault" (e.g. Rdsrds2120 has been charged with Assault & Battery.)

--Andy

by **rdsrds2120** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 4:44 pm

AndyDufresne wrote:
AndyDufresne wrote:Imagine, an entire generation that will have never licked a battery. The world is changing.

Imagine, an entire generation that will only ever associate "battery" with "assault" (e.g. Rdsrds2120 has been charged with Assault & Battery.)

--Andy

That's right, charged with.

BMO

by **tzor** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 6:33 pm

nietzsche wrote:I hope they are ready before I turn 40. Take them from the scientist and give them to an entrepreneur now please.

Yes, but your luck they will be only available in some mythical land called "Gault's Gulch." :twisted:

by **nietzsche** on Tue Feb 19, 2013 9:24 pm

facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm facepalm

by **Haggis_McMutton** on Wed Feb 20, 2013 8:10 am

It's that time again:

From reddit

In the comments of this video the PI states that they've achieved energy densities of 1.36mWh/cm3. Since standard energy densities are given in MJ/kg we'll have to guess the mass density 2g/cm3 will be conservative since it is the density of graphite which is very near the highest possible packing density of graphene.
This gives us an energy density of .00245 MJ/kg.* Which is 60 times greater than a traditional capacitor (.000 036MJ/kg) but 1/300 the density of a rechargeable lithium ion battery.
We can conclude from this that the research is very promising and could have a huge impact in areas where we already rely on large capacitors. But the technology is not any where near replacing current battery technology.
* Side work: 1.36mWh/cm3 * .5 cm3 /g * 3600 s/h = 2448 Ws/kg = 2.45 kJ/kg
Note: 2g/cm3 is the most conservative mass density estimate but every where I checked only gave the density in terms of cm3. I would not be surprised if their actual prototype had a density closer to 1g/cm3 but I doubt it would be much less than that.

This is exactly right. Energy density has been improved, but it's still far from enough. Currently your electric car would have about a 10 mile range before having to fill up again.

If you wanted to power a cell phone off of this technology in it's current state you would need a battery roughly 300 times the weight of current cell phone batteries. So to get 5hrs of talk time you would need a super capacitor of this design weighing 1.2kg (3 pounds) instead of 3.9g. Alternatively a supercapacitor weighing 3.9g would give you 12 seconds of talk time. As I mentioned before my estimates were conservative so you could be getting as much as 24 seconds of talk time.
They have yet to beat the battery, but that does not diminish how important this research is.

And someone else (can't find it) mentions that the comparison regarding weight is actually favourable to the supercapacitor since graphene is very light. If you did the comparison regarding volume it would be even more terrible. Basically you'd need like a trailer full of the stuff to power your car.

by **ender516** on Wed Feb 20, 2013 1:12 pm

Well, that breaks my heart. However, even if the energy density makes it impractical for portable battery purposes, perhaps it would be cost-effective for UPSs, or better still, massive storage facilities that could make wind, solar, and tidal energy practical by making the power available when it is needed, not necessarily when it is generated.