New super capacitor tech on the way

[Irving]

I thought this article was pretty exciting and wanted to share.

A fluke breakthrough could be the missing link for an electric car age

A fluke breakthrough could be the missing link for an electric car age

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/super...ic-car-battery

Superdielectrics Ltd has developed a supercapacitor material that can store "remarkable amounts of electricity, far beyond what we've seen before," according to its CEO Jim Heathcote. It's cheap to produce, uses no rare elements, and because it's mostly water, it can't catch on fire like traditional batteries. The discovery happened almost by accident, says Highgate, who is now director of research at the company.

Highgate remembers scribbling some rough figures on the back of an envelope. "I did the calculation and I thought, 'Bloody hell, that's ridiculous,'" he recalls. "[The capacitance] was 100 times what it ought to have been for a little thing a square centimetre. I thought I'd made a mistake."

They had stumbled on a material with dielectric properties between 1,000 and 10,000 times greater than existing conductors. Over the last 14 months Superdielectrics has been working with researchers at the universities of Bristol and Surrey to determine whether their polymers work in real world conditions. They released their results this week.

The scientists have created small devices that can power a fan or an LED for a few minutes, and claim that with further work the material could eventually reach energy densities of up to 180 watt-hours per kilogram, compared to 10 Whr/kg for the best currently available supercapacitors.

[Gman]

Definitely written for a British audience.

"When everyone puts on the kettle after dinner, that sudden spike in demand has to come from somewhere," says Cooper.

There are some potential hurdles to overcome. Although the material is competitive with batteries on weight, Cooper points out that size will also matter if they're going to be used within vehicles. This hasn't been researched yet, but Highgate estimates the volume of a supercapacitor made using this technology would be about 30 per cent greater than an equivalent battery.

This and leakage will be a big hurdle for electric cars. Vehicles get in accidents. The ability of a super capacitor to rapidly discharge the stored energy could also be amazingly dangerous.

[Irving]

While the article is about cars, I like thinking about things like hand tools. An impact driver that drives 3x as many screws and only takes a minute to charge? Yes, please. I made up those figures.

It reminded me of this video where a guy uses solar panels to charge super capacitors to run a saw.

[MarkCO]

The electricity still has to be generated, so really no good reason to store it yet, even if you can store more.

[Irving]

Oops, that was the build video. Here is the one of him using the saw.

[Irving]

The electricity still has to be generated, so really no good reason to store it yet, even if you can store more.

One thing the article talks about is use with charging stations where it can fill capacitors at lower electricity rates during off peak hours, store the electricity, then quickly charge vehicles during peak hours.

[BushMasterBoy]

When they get it really perfected, we can have a hand held laser weapon. It won't kill the attacker, just permanently blind him. My futures so bright, I gotta wear shades...

[Irving]

You can already do that with the laser out of a Blu-ray player. Let me look for the video real quick.

[Irving]

Here is a gun: https://youtu.be/xfj1n8vPWCE

And here is a more powerful version setting stuff on fire. My eyes hurt just watching this video.


I always wondered if something like this could be an arsonist's best friend, but with how bright that shotgun is, I don't think it'd be quite as discrete as a criminal would prefer. Make it safer to light fireworks though.

[Duman]

When they get it really perfected, we can have a hand held laser weapon. It won't kill the attacker, just permanently blind him. My futures so bright, I gotta wear shades...

I wear my sunglasses at night
So I can so I can
Keep track of the visions in my eyes...