New material holds big energy hope

A new material that can store large amounts of energy with very little energy loss has been developed by researchers at the Australian National University.

The material has practical applications in renewable energy storage, electric cars and defence and space technologies.

"Dielectric materials are used to make fundamental electrical components called capacitors, which store energy," said Associate Professor Yun Liu of the ANU Research School of Chemistry, co-author of the paper detailing the new material.

The new metal oxide dielectric material outperforms current capacitors in many aspects, storing large amounts of energy and working reliably from -190°C to 180°C, and is cheaper to manufacture than current components.

"Our material performs significantly better than existing high dielectric constant materials so it has huge potential. With further development, the material could be used in 'supercapacitors' which store enormous amounts of energy, removing current energy storage limitations and throwing the door wide open for innovation in the areas of renewable energy, electric cars, even space and defence technologies," said Associate Professor Liu.