In a new landmark chemistry study, researchers describe how they have achieved the highest level of energy storage -- also known as capacitance -- in a supercapacitor ever recorded.
The study, led by Luis Echegoyen, Ph.D., professor emeritus at The University of Texas at El Paso, and Marta Plonska-Brzezinska, Ph.D., of the Medical University of Bialystok, Poland, was recently featured in the journal Scientific Reports, which is published by leading research publisher Nature Portfolios.
Supercapacitors are devices that store electrical energy between two metal plates that are close together but separated by a surface that cannot conduct electricity. Supercapacitors are similar to batteries, except that batteries store and retrieve energy using chemical transformations, while capacitors store energy by using oppositely charged surfaces. They are frequently used in machines that require rapid discharge of energy, like electric cars, buses, trains and cranes.
"This is a big step forward and gets us closer to achieving supercapacitors with high energy density, which would radically change how we store and manage energy," said Echegoyen, a longtime faculty member within UTEP's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
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