Supercapacitors offer incredibly high capacitance per unit mass – 100 F/cubic centimeter or more. We are investigating new nanostructured materials that promise to increase capacitance by an order of magnitude, while also greatly increasing power density, creating a portable storage device that has an energy density close to that of a battery and the incredibly high power output of a traditional capacitor. Supercapacitors, also known as electrochemical double layer capacitors, use two highly porous electrodes (traditionally carbon powder or fibre), that are filled with a salt solution and connected in series through the electrolyte. Application of a voltage leads to ionic charging of the electrode pores. The nanometer spacing between the ions and the electrodes leads to very high capacitance per unit area, and the high porosity creates incredible volumetric capacitances. Applications include use in electric/hybrid vehicles, mobile electronic devices, fusion reactors, and distributed sensors. Previous work has been published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.
Niobium yarn before and after PEDOT deposition as an electrode material from past work published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. Scale bar is 5 microns.