U.S. Successfully Develops New Supercapacitor Materials

Recently, researchers at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of California, Los Angeles, have successfully developed a new supercapacitor material and demonstrated that it can quickly store and release energy. It is expected to be widely used in urban power grids. Energy transfer systems such as regenerative braking systems for hybrid vehicles.

The research team led by Bruce Dunn, a professor of materials science and engineering, has synthesized a kind of yttrium oxide and proved that it has a stable energy storage capacity. This new material will be used in "super capacitors." The super capacitor is a device that combines the high energy storage capacity of a lithium ion battery and the fast energy transfer of an ordinary capacitor.

The main author of the paper, Veronika Augustine, a graduate student of Donne, said: “Our latest research is blurring the line between batteries and supercapacitors. The latest discovery is a good dismissal of the inadequacies of capacitors and batteries.” Batteries can store energy efficiently but do not deliver energy very well, because charge carriers (ions) move slowly when they pass through the solid battery material; the storage capacity of the capacitor is generally lower.

Scientists said that the latest technology is expected to enable the device to be fully charged. These devices can be widely used in everything from mobile electronics to industrial equipment. For example, an energy harvesting system using a super capacitor can provide energy to a loading crane on the port, reducing the use of hydrocarbon fuels such as diesel.

Donne emphasized that despite the crucial first step in making electrodes with this material, in order to obtain practical equipment with high energy density that can be fully charged in one minute, in the future, we must go beyond the nanoscale or beyond. A breakthrough in the field of engineering at the nanoscale.