The supercacitor or ionistor is a device for the accumulation of energy masses, the accumulation of charge occurs on the border between the electrode and the electrolyte. Useful energy volume is maintained as a static charge. The accumulative process comes down to the interaction with constant voltage when the ionistor receives the difference in potentials to their plates. Technological implementation, as well as the very idea of \u200b\u200bcreating such devices, appeared relatively recently, but they managed to obtain an experienced application to solve a certain number of tasks. The item can replace the sources of current of chemical origin, being a reserve or main means of energy supply in hours, computational calculators, various chips.
The elementary design of the capacitor consists of a plane, the material for the manufacture of which serves as a foil delated by a dry separating agent. The ionistor consists of a variety of capacitors with an electrochemical type charger. Special electrolytes are used for its manufacture. Plugs can be several varieties. Activated coal is used to manufacture large parameter plates. Metal oxides and polymer materials with high conductivity indicators can also be used. To achieve the necessary indicators of capacitive density, it is recommended to use high-art coal materials. In addition, this approach allows the ionistor to make an impressive low cost. Such parts refer to the discharge of DLC capacitors that produce charge accumulation in a double compartment formed on the plated.
A constructive solution when the ionistor is combined with a water electrolyte base is characterized by a low resistance of the internal elements, while the charge voltage limit is 1 V. The use of organic conductors guarantees the voltage indicators of about 2 ... 3 V and increased resistance.
Electronic circuits operate with higher energy needs. By solving such a task is to increase the number of power dots used. The ionistor is set not one, but in the amount of 3-4x pieces, which gives the required amount of charge.
Comparatively with a nickel-metal hydride battery, the ionistor is capable of containing the tenth of the energy stock, while its voltage falls in a linearly, excluding plane discharge zones. These factors affect the ability to fully hold the charge in the ionistor. Charging level directly depends on the technological purpose of the element.
Quite often, the ionistor is used to feed the memory microcircuit, include filtering chains and smoothing filters. They can also be combined with batteries of various samples, to combat the effects of sharp jumps of the value of the current: during the supply of low current, the ionistor is recharging, in the opposite case, it gives part of the energy than reduces the total load.
Ionistors are electrochemical instruments intended for storage electrical Energy. They are characterized by a large number of charge - discharge (up to several tens of thousands of times), they have a very long service life, unlike other batteries (rechargeable batteries and electroplating elements), a small leakage current, and most importantly - ionistors can have a large capacity and very Small sizes. Ionistors were widely used in personal computers, car radio mobile devices etc. Designed to store memory when the latch battery is removed or the device is disabled. Recently, ionistors have often began to apply in autonomous power systems on solar panels.
Ionistors also stored a charge for a very long time, regardless of weather conditions, they are enduring to frosts and to the heat, and it will not affect the operation of the device. In some electronic circuits To store memory you need to have a voltage that is higher than the voltage of the ionistor, to solve this issue, the ionistors are connected in series, and to increase the tank of the ionistor they are connected in parallel. The last type of connection is mainly used to increase the operation time of the ionistor, as well as to increase the current of the load of the current, to balancing the current in the parallel connection, the resistor is connected to each ionistor.
Ionistors are often used with nutrition batteries and unlike them are not afraid short circuits and sharp difference in ambient temperatures. Already today, special ionistors are being developed with a large capacity of which comes up to 1 amper, as is known to the Ionistors current that today is used in the technique of storage of memory does not exceed 100 milliamperes, this is the one and most important lack of ionistors, but this joint is compensated above the listed advantages of ionistors. On the Internet you can find a lot of designs on the so-called supercacitators - they are the same ionistors. Ionistors appeared quite recently - 20 years ago.
According to scientists, electrical capacity Our planet is 700 μF, compare with a simple capacitor ... ionistors are mainly made from charcoal, which, in the consequence of activation and special processing, becomes porous, two metal plates are tightly pressed against the coal compound. Make an ionistor at home is very simple, but get a porous coal is almost not realistic, you need home treatment of charcoal, and it is somewhat problematic, so it's easier to buy an ionistor and put interesting experiments on it. For example, the parameters (power and voltage) of one ionistor enough to brightly lit the LED or worked
The electric container of the globe, as is known from the course of physics, is approximately 700 μF. An ordinary capacitor of such a container can be compared by weight and volume with brick. But there are condensers with the electrical capacity of the globe, equal in its size of the sand - supercondensators.
There were such devices relatively recently, twenty years ago. They are called differently: ionistors, ionists or just supercapacitors.
Do not think that they are available only to some high flight aerospace firms. Today you can buy in the store the ionistor with a coin size and a container in one Faraday, which is 1500 times the capacity of the globe and close to the capacity of the largest planet of the Solar System - Jupiter.
Any condenser reserves energy. To understand how great or small energy, pointed in Ionistor, it is important to compare it with something. Here is a little unusual, but a good way.
The energies of the ordinary capacitor are enough so that it can jump about the meter one and a half. The tiny ionistor of type 58-9B, which has a mass of 0.5 g, charged with a voltage of 1 V, could jump on a height of 293 m!
Sometimes they think that the ionistors are able to replace any battery. Journalists painted the world of the future with silent electric vehicles on supercapacitors. But so far before that far. The ionistor weighing one kg is able to accumulate 3000 J Energy, and the worst lead battery - 86,400 J - 28 times more. However, with a low-power return in a short time, the battery will quickly deteriorate, and only healon is discharged. The ionistor is repeatedly and without any harm for herself gives any capacity, if only they could withstand the connecting wires. In addition, the ionistor can be charged for counting seconds, and the battery is usually needed clock.
This determines the scope of the ionistor. It is good as a power source of devices, briefly, but quite often consuming greater power: electronic equipment, pocket lamps, automotive starters, electric jackhammers. The ionistor may have military use as a source of power supply of electromagnetic guns. And in combination with a small power plant, the ionistor allows you to create automobiles with electric wheels and fuel consumption of 1-2 l per 100 km.
Ionistors on the most different capacity and operating voltage are on sale, but they are expensive. So if there is time and interest, you can try to make the ionistor yourself. But before giving specific advice, a little theory.
From the electrochemistry it is known: when the metal is immersed, the so-called double electric layer is formed on its surface, consisting of multi-dimensional electrical charges - ions and electrons. Between them there are forces of mutual attraction, but charges cannot get close. This is hampered by the forces of attraction of water and metal molecules. In fact, the double electric layer is nothing but a capacitor. The charges focused on its surface perform the role of plates. The distance between them is very small. And, as you know, the capacitance of the capacitor with a decrease in the distance between its plates increases. Therefore, for example, the capacity of the conventional steel needles, immersed in water, reaches several MF.
In essence, the ionistor consists of two electrodes immersed in the electrolyte with a very large area, on the surface of which the double electric layer is formed under the action of the applied voltage. True, applying ordinary flat plates, it would be possible to obtain a capacity of just a few dozen MF. For the same characteristic ionistors of large containers, electrodes of porous materials having a large surface of pores are used in them. external sizes.
Thinking metals from titanium to platinum were tried on this role. However, it was incomparably better than all ... the usual activated carbon. This charcoal, which after special processing becomes porous. The surface area of \u200b\u200bpores 1 cm3 of such coal reaches thousands of square meters, and the capacity of the double electric layer on them is ten Farad!
The self-made ionistor in Figure 1 shows the design of the ionistor. It consists of two metal plates, tightly pressed to "stuffing" from activated carbon. Coal is laid in two layers, between which a thin separating layer of a substance that does not conduct electrons is laid. All this is impregnated with electrolyte.
When charging the ionistor in one half of its half on the pores of coal, a double electric layer with electrons on the surface is formed, into another - with positive ions. After charging ions and electrons begin to flee towards each other. When they are met, neutral metal atoms are formed, and the accumulated charge decreases and with time can come off at all.
To prevent this, between the layers of activated carbon and the separation layer is introduced. It can consist of various thin plastic films, paper and even wool.
In amateur ionistors, the electrolyte serves a 25% solution of the sole salt or a 27% solution of con. (At smaller concentrations, a layer of negative ions on a positive electrode is not formed.)
Copper plates are used as electrodes with steamed wires in advance. Their work surfaces should be cleaned of oxides. At the same time, it is desirable to use a coarse scratch with a coarse. These scratches will improve coal clutch with copper. For a good clutch, the plate must be degreased. Degreasing the plates is made in two stages. Initially, they are washed with soap, and then rub with a tooth powder and wash off its jet of water. After that, you should not touch them with your fingers.
Activated carbon bought in a pharmacy is triturated in a mortar and mixed with an electrolyte to obtain a thick paste, which is smeared carefully low-fat plates.
When you first test, the plate with a laying of paper lay one to another, after that we will try to charge it. But there are subtlety. At voltage of more than 1 V, the release of gases H2, O2 begins. They destroy coal electrodes and do not allow to work our device in the ionistore condenser mode.
Therefore, we must charge it from a voltage source not above 1 V. (just such a voltage for each pair of plates is recommended for the work of industrial ionistors.)
Details for curious
At voltage of more than 1.2, the ionistor turns into a gas battery. This is an interesting device, also consisting of activated carbon and two electrodes. But it is constructively performed otherwise (see Fig. 2). Typically take two coal rods from the old galvanic element and tied around them gauze bags with activated carbon. Cover solution is used as an electrolyte. (The solution of the cooking salt should not be applied, because when it is decomposition, chlorine is released.)
The energy intensity of the gas battery reaches 36,000 J / kg, or 10 W-b / kg. It is 10 times more than the ionistor, but 2.5 times less than the conventional lead battery. However, the gas battery is not just a battery, but a very peculiar fuel cell. When it is charging on the electrodes, gases are distinguished - oxygen and hydrogen. They "settle" on the surface of activated carbon. When the current of the load appears, their connection is connected to the formation of water and electric current. This process, however, without a catalyst is very slow. And the catalyst, as it turned out, can only be platinum ... Therefore, in contrast to the ionistore, the gas battery can not give large currents.
Nevertheless, the Moscow Inventor A.G. Presnyakov (http: //chemfiles.narod .r u / Hit / Gas_akk.htm) successfully applied a gas battery to start a truck motor. His solid weight is almost three times more than usual - in this case it turned out to be tolerated. But the low cost and the absence of such harmful materials such as acid and lead seemed extremely attractive.
Gas battery simplest design It turned out to be prone to a complete self-discharge for 4-6 hours. This laid an end to experiments. To whom you need a car, which is impossible to start after the night parking lot?
Nevertheless, "big technique" did not forget about gas batteries. Powerful, lungs and reliable, they stand on some satellites. The process in them goes under a pressure of about 100 atm, and sponge nickel is used as a gases absorber, which under such conditions works as a catalyst. The entire device is placed in the ultralight cylinder from the carbon fiber. It turned out accumulators with energy intensity almost 4 times higher than that of lead batteries. The electric car might go about 600 km. But, unfortunately, while they are very expensive.
For electricity accumulation, people first used capacitors. Then, when the electrical engineering went beyond the limits of laboratory experiments, batteries were invented, which became the main means for the stock of electrical energy. But at the beginning of the XXI century again it is proposed to use condensers for powering electrical equipment. How much is it possible and will the batteries finally go to the past?
The reason why condensers were ousted with batteries, was associated with significantly large values \u200b\u200bof electricity that they can accumulate. Another reason is that when discharge, the voltage at the battery output changes very poorly, so the voltage stabilizer is or not required or may have a very simple design.
The main difference between capacitors and batteries is that condensers are directly stored electric charge, And the batteries turn electrical energy into chemical, soil it, and then convertible chemical eneurium into electric.
When energy transformations, part of it is lost. Therefore, even O. better batteries The efficiency is no more than 90%, while the capacitors can reach 99%. The intensity of chemical reactions depends on the temperature, so in the cold the batteries work noticeably worse than at room temperature. In addition, chemical reactions in batteries are not completely reversible. Hence the small number of charge-discharge cycles (order of thousands of thousands, most often the battery life is about 1000 cycles of the discharge), as well as the "memory effect". Recall that the "memory effect" is that the battery must always be discharged to a certain value of the accumulated energy, then its capacity will be maximum. If after the discharge it remains more energy, the battery capacity will gradually decrease. The "memory effect" is peculiar to almost all mass-produced types of batteries, except for acid (including their varieties - gel and AGM). Although it is believed that he is not peculiar to lithium-ion and lithium-polymeric batteries, in fact, it is, it is simply manifested to a lesser extent than in other types. What concerns acid batteriesThe effect of plates sulfate is manifested in them, causing an irreversible damage of the power supply. One of the reasons is a long-term accumulation of the battery in a charge state of less than 50%.
In relation to alternative energy, the "memory effect" and sulfate plates are serious problems. The fact is that the flow of energy from such sources as solar panels And the windmills, it is difficult to predict. As a result, the charge and the discharge of batteries occur chaotically, in non-optimal mode.
For the modern rhythm of life, it turns out absolutely unacceptable that the batteries have to be charged several hours. For example, how do you imagine a trip to the electric car for long distances, if the discharged battery will delay you for a few hours in the charging point? The battery charging speed is limited by the speed of chemical processes in it. You can reduce charging time up to 1 hour, but not up to a few minutes. At the same time, the speed of charging the capacitor is limited only to the maximum current, which gives the charger.
The listed disadvantages of batteries made up the use of capacitors instead.
Using a double electric layer
Over the course of many decades, electrolytic capacitors have possessed the largest container. In them, one of the plates was a metallic foil, the other - the electrolyte, and the insulation between the plates - the metal oxide, which is covered with foil. In electrolytic capacitors, the container can reach the hundredths of the Faraday, which is not enough to fully replace the battery.
A large capacity measured by thousands of Farada allows you to obtain condensers based on the so-called double electric layer. The principle of their work is next. The double electrical layer occurs under certain conditions at the boundary of substances in solid and liquid phases. Two layers of ions are formed with the charges of the opposite sign, but the same value. If it is very easy to simplify the situation, the condenser is formed, the "plates" of which said layers of ions are, the distance between which is equal to several atoms.
Condenses based on this effect are sometimes called ionistors. In fact, this term is not only for condensers in which an electrical charge is accumulated, but also to other devices for the accumulation of electricity - with partial transformation of electrical energy into the chemical along with the preservation of the electric charge (hybrid ionistor), as well as for batteries based on Double electric layer (so-called pseudocomators). Therefore, the term "supercapacitors" is more appropriate. Sometimes instead of it, the term "ultra-confacient" shall be used.
Technical implementation
The supercapacitor is two plates from activated carbon, filled with electrolyte. The membrane is located between them, which passes the electrolyte, but prevents the physical movement of the activated carbon particles between the plates.
It should be noted that the supercapacitors themselves do not have polarity. This is fundamentally different from electrolytic capacitors, for which, as a rule, the polarity is characteristic, the non-compliance with which leads to the output of the condenser. Nevertheless, polarity is also applied on supercapacitors. This is due to the fact that supercapacitors go from the factory conveyor already charged, marking and means the polarity of this charge.
Options supercapacitors
Maximum capacity A separate supercapacitor, achieved at the time of writing an article, is 12,000 F. In massive superocolitors, it does not exceed 3000 F. The maximum allowable voltage between the plates does not exceed 10 V. for serially produced supercapacitators, this indicator, as a rule, lies within 2.3 - 2.7 V. Low operating voltage requires the use of a voltage converter with a stabilizer function. The fact is that when discharge, the voltage on the capacitor is changed over wide limits. Build a voltage converter to connect the load and charger are a nontrivial task. Suppose you need to feed the load with a capacity of 60 W.
To simplify the consideration of the issue neglect the losses in the voltage converter and the stabilizer. In the event that you work with a conventional battery with a voltage of 12 V, the control electronics must withstand the current in 5 A. Such electronic devices are widespread and cost inexpensively. But the situation is completely consistent when using the supercapacitor, the voltage on which is 2.5 V. The current flowing through the electronic components of the converter can reach 24 A, which requires new approaches to the scheduling and a modern element base. It is difficult to build a converter and a stabilizer that the supercapacitors, the serial release of which was started back in the 70s of the 20th century, only now began to be widely used in various fields.
Supercondapators can be connected in batteries using serial or parallel compound. In the first case, the maximum allowable voltage increases. In the second case - the container. Increasing the maximum allowable voltage in this way is one of the ways to solve the problem, but to pay for it will have to reduce the container.
The dimensions of supercapacitors naturally depend on their container. A typical supercapacitor with a capacity of 3000 F is a cylinder with a diameter of about 5 cm and a length of 14 cm. When capacity 10 f, the supercapacitor has dimensions comparable to human nail.
Good supercapacitors are able to withstand hundreds of thousands of charge-discharge cycles, exceeding this parameter accumulators about 100 times. But, like in electrolytic capacitors, there is a problem of aging due to the gradual leakage of electrolyte for supercapacitors. So far, for now complete statistics of the failure of supercapacitors for this reason, it is not accumulated, but according to indirect data, the service life of supercapacitors can be approximately estimated by 15 years.
Accumulated energy
The amount of energy stored in the condenser, expressed in Joules:
where C is a container expressed in the Farades, U is the stress on the plated, expressed in the volts.
The amount of energy stored in the condenser, expressed in kWh, is:
Hence, the capacitor with a capacity of 3000 f with voltage between the plates of 2.5 V is capable of stock in itself only 0.0026 kWh. How can this be correlated, for example, with a lithium-ion battery? If we take its output voltage independent of the discharge degree and equal to 3.6 V, then the amount of energy 0.0026 kWh will be stacked in a lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 0.72 Ah. Alas, a very modest result.
Application supercapacitors
Emergency lighting systems are the place where the use of supercapacitors instead of batteries gives a tangible gain. In fact, it is for this application that is characterized by uneven discharge. In addition, it is desirable that the charging of the emergency lamp happens quickly, and that the reserve power source used in it has been greatly reliable. Supercapacitor based backup power source can be built directly in lED lamp T8. Such lamps are already produced by a number of Chinese firms.
As already noted, the development of supercapacitors is largely associated with interest in alternative energy sources. But practical use It is still limited by LED lamps that receive energy from the sun.
Such a direction is actively developing as the use of supercapacitors to start electrical equipment.
Supercapacitors are able to give a large amount of energy in a short time interval. Sangering electrical equipment at the time of starting from the supercapacitor, you can reduce the peak load on the electrical circuit and ultimately reduce the supply for starting currents, having achieved a huge cost savings.
By connecting several supercapacitors in the battery, we can reach a container comparable to batteries used in electric vehicles. But this battery will be weighing several times more battery, which is unacceptable for vehicles. It is possible to solve the problem using graphene-based supercapacitors, but they still exist as prototypes. Nevertheless, the promising version of the famous "E-Mobile", operating only from electricity, will use new generation supercapacitors as a power source, the development of which is conducted by Russian scientists.
Supercapacitors will also benefit when replacing batteries in conventional gasoline or diesel fuel machines - their use in such vehicles is already a reality.
In the meantime, the most successful of the implemented projects for the introduction of supercapacitors can be considered new trolleybuses of Russian production, which recently came to the streets of Moscow. When the voltage is stopped into the contact network or with the "flying" of the current collectors, the trolleybus can drive on a small (about 15 km / h) speed of several hundred meters to the place where it will not interfere with the movement on the road. The source of energy with such maneuvers for it is the battery of supercapacitors.
In general, while supercapacitors can outpace batteries only in separate "niches". But technology is growing rapidly, which makes it possible to expect that in the near future the area of \u200b\u200bthe use of supercapacitors will significantly expand.
Alexey Vasilyev
The hype around the construction of the Elon Mask "Gigafabric Batteries" for the production of lithium-ion batteries has not yet been amended, as an event message appeared, which can significantly adjust the plans of the "billionaire revolutionar".
We are talking about a recent press release of the company SUNVAULT ENERGY INC.., Together with Edison Power Company. It was possible to create the world's largest graphene supercapacitor with a capacity of 10 thousand (!) Farad.
This figure is so phenomenal that domestic professionals cause doubt - even 20 microfarades in electrical engineering (that is, 0.02 Millinarad), it is a lot. Doubt, however, it is not necessary - the director of Sunvault Energy is Bill Richardson, Ex-Governor of New Mexico and former US Energy Minister. Bill Richardson - a person famous and respected: he served as the US ambassador to the UN, worked for several years in the analytical center Kissinger and Maklarti, and for his successes in the liberation of Americans who were captured by the militants in different "hot spots", even advanced to the Nobel Prize World. In 2008, he was one of the candidates from the Democratic Party to the presidency of the United States, but lost to B. Badam.
Today, SunVault is growing rapidly by creating a joint venture with Edison Power Company called SuperSunvault, and not only scientists entered the board of directors of the new company (one of the directors - biochemist, another one is an enterprising oncologist), but also famous people with a good business grip. I note that only over the past two months, the company has raised the capacity of its supercapacitators ten times - from thousands of up to 10,000 Farad, and promises to increase it even more to the energy accumulated in the condenser and enough for the power supply of the whole home, that is, Sunvault is ready to perform direct The competitor of Elon Mask, planning the release of Powerwall type super-fatar with a capacity of about 10 kWh.
The advantages of graphene technology and the end of the "gigafabric".
Here you need to remind you of the main difference between the capacitors from the batteries - if the first is quickly charged and discharged, but they accumulate little energy and, then the batteries - on the contrary. Note the main advantages of graphene supercacitoroin.
1. Fast charge - Capacitors are charged approximately 100-1000 times faster than batteries.
2. Cheapness: If ordinary lithium-ion batteries cost about $ 500 per 1 kWh accumulated energy and, then the supercapacitor is only 100, and by the end of the year the creators promise to reduce cost to $ 40. In its composition, this ordinary carbon is one of the most common chemical elements on Earth.
3. Compactness and density of energy and. The new graphene supercapacitor strikes not only its fantastic capacity, superior known samples of about a thousand times, but also compactness - in size it with a small book, that is, once a hundred more compactly used by the current capacitors for 1 Farad.
4. Safety and environmental friendliness. They are significantly safer than batteries that heat, contain hazardous chemistry, and sometimes also explode. The graphene is a biologically decomposable substance, that is, in the sun, it simply disintegrates and does not spoil the environment. It is chemically inactive and does not spoil ecology.
5. Easy of the new graphene technology. Hasive territories and investments, the mass of workers, poisonous and hazardous substances used in the technological process of lithium-ion batteries - all this sharply contrasts with the striking simplicity of the new technology. The fact is that graphene (that is, the thinnest, single-cattle carbon film) in SunVault is obtained ... With the help of an ordinary CD disc, which is pouring a graphite suspension. Then the disk is inserted into the usual DVD drive, and is burned by a laser by special Program - And the graphene layer is ready! It is reported that the discovery was done by chance - a student by Maher El Cadi, who worked in the laboratory of Chemist Richard Cane. Then he burned the disk using the Lightscribe program, and received a graphene layer at the output.
Moreover, according to the executive director Sunvault Gary Monkhan at the Wall Street conference, the company is working to Grafenal energy drives and it was possible to make conventional printing on a 3D printer - And this will make their production not only as a penny, but also practically publicly available. And in combination with inexpensive solar panels (today their cost dropped to $ 1.3 per WT), graphene supercapacitors will give millions of people a chance to gain energy independence, generally disconnecting from power supply networks, and even more so - to become electric power suppliers themselves and destroying " Natural "monopolies.
So you do not have to doubt: graphene supercondressants are revolutionary breakthrough in the field of energy accumulation and
. And this is bad news for Elon Mask - the construction of the plant in Nevada will cost him about 5 billion dollars, "discourage" which even without such competitors would not be easy. It seems that if the construction of the plant in Nevada is already underway, and it will probably be hung, then the rest of the three who planned the mask - are unlikely to be laid.
Access to the market? Not so soon, as I would like.
The revolutionism of such technology is obvious. It is unclear - when will it go to the market? Already today, the bulky and expensive project "Gigafabric" of lithium-ion Elon Mask looks like a dinosaur of industrialism. However, whatever revolutionary, necessary and environmentally friendly new technologyThis does not mean that she will come to us for the year or two. The world of capital cannot avoid financial shocks, but quite successfully avoids technological. In such cases, backing arrangements between major investors and political players begin to work. It is worth recalling that Sunvault is a firm located in Canada, and the Board of Directors includes people who, although they have extensive connections in the political elite of the United States, but still do not enter into its petrodollast core, more or less obvious struggle with which, Apparently, already started.
What is most important for us opportunities that reveal emerging energy technologies: Energy Independence
For the country, and in perspective - and for each of its citizen. Of course, graphene supercapacitors are rather "hybrid", transitional, technology, it does not allow directly to earn Yu, unlike magneto gravitational technologieswhich promise to completely change the scientific paradigm itself and the appearance of the whole world. Finally, is revolutionary financial technologies which are actually tabulated by global petrodollar mafia. Nevertheless, this is a very impressive breakthrough, the more interesting that he is happening in the "Lair of the petrodollast beast" - in the United States.
Just half a year ago I wrote about the success of Italians in cold nuclear synthesis technology, but during this time we learned about the impressive LENR technology american company SOLARTRENDS, and about the breakthrough of the German Gaya-Rosch, and now - and about the truly revolutionary technology of graphene drives. Even this short list shows that the problem is not that our, or in any other government there are no opportunity to reduce the accounts that we receive for gas and electricity yu, and not even in the opaque calculation of tariffs.
The root of evil - in the ignorance of those who pay on accounts, and the reluctance to change something from those who write them
. Only for manual energy I am, this is electricity. In fact, I am energy - this is power.
Scientific Edition Science reported a technological breakthrough committed by Australian scientists in the field of creating supercapacitors.
Employees of the University of Menasha, located in Melbourne, managed to change the production technology of supercapacitors made from graphene, in such a way that products with higher commercial attractiveness were obtained at the exit than the analogues that existed earlier.
Experts have long been talking about the magical qualities of the supercapacitors based on graphene, and the tests in laboratories more than once convincingly proved the fact that they are better than ordinary. Such capacitors with the prefix "Super" are waiting for the creators of modern electronics, automotive companies and even builders of alternative sources of electricity and.
Higher cycle of life cycle, as well as the ability of the supercacitator to charge for the shortest time allowing the designers to solve with their help complex tasks when designing different devices. But on the path of the triumphal march of graphene capacitors, until this time, there was a low indicator of their specific energy. On average, the ionistor or supercapacitor had an indicator of specific energy and about 5-8 W * h / kg, which on the background quick discharge Delivered the graphene product dependent on the need to ensure very often recharging.
Australian staff of the department for studying the production of materials from Melbourne, led by Professor Danie Lee, managed to increase the specific energy density of the capacitor from graphene. Now this figure is equal to the new capacitor equal to 60W * h / kg, and this is already a reason to talk about the technical revolution in this area. The inventors managed to defeat the problem of the rapid discharge of the graphene supercapacitor, achieving the fact that it is now discharged slowly than even a standard battery.
A technological find helped to achieve such an impressive result: they took adaptive the graphene-gel film and created a very small electrode from her. The space between the sheets of graphene inventors was filled with a liquid electrolyte, in order to each other, a subnamer distance was formed. Such an electrolyte is present in ordinary capacitorswhere he acts as an electricity conductor. Here it became not only a conductor, but also a barrier to contact the graphene sheets. It is such a move that made it possible to achieve a higher density of the capacitor with the simultaneous preservation of the porous structure.
The compact electrode itself was created by technology that is familiar to manufacturers to all paper us. This method Enough daughters and simple, which allows with optimism to look at the possibility of commercial production of new supercapacitors.
Journalists hurried to assure the world that humanity received an incentive to develop brand new electronic devices. The inventors themselves, the inventors of Professor Li promised to help the graphene supercandensant very quickly overcome the path from the laboratory to the plant.
I like it or not, but the era of electric cars is steadily approaching. And now only one technology is holding back the breakthrough and seizure of the market with electric vehicles, the technology of accumulating electrical energy and. Despite all the achievements of scientists in this direction, most electrical and hybrid cars have lithium-ion batteries in their design, which have their own positive and negative sides, and can provide a car mileage on one charge only to a small distance sufficient only to move in Urban feature. All the world's leading automakers understand this problem and are engaged in the search for methods for increasing the efficiency of electrical vehicles, which will increase the range of travel on one charge rechargeable batteries.
One of the directions of increasing the efficiency of electric cars is the collection and reuse of energy and turning into heat when braking the car and when the car is moving along the road surface irregularities. Methods of returning such an energy and, but the effectiveness of its collection and reuse is extremely low due to the low speed of battery life. Braking times are usually calculated seconds and it is too fast for batteries, for charging which time is required. Therefore, for the accumulation of "fast" energy and other approaches and accumulating devices are required, the role of large capacitance capacitors, so-called supercapacitors.
Unfortunately, supercapacitors are not yet ready to go to the "big way", despite the fact that they are able to quickly charge and discharge, their capacity is relatively low. In addition, the reliability of supercapacitors also leaves much to be desired, the materials used in the electrodes of supercapacitors are constantly destroyed as a result of multiple charge-discharge cycles. And this is hardly permissible, given that in the entire life of the electric car, the number of cycles of operation of supercapacitors should make many millions of times.
Santhakumar Kannappan (Santhakumar Kannappan) and the group of his colleagues from the Institute of Science and Technology, Kwangju, Korea, there is a solution to the problem described above, the basis of which is one of the most amazing materials of modernity - graphene. Korean researchers have developed and manufactured experimental samples of highly efficient supercapacitors based on graphene, the capacitive parameters of which are not inferior to the parameters of lithium-ion batteries, but which are capable of accustomed to accumulate and give their electrical charge. In addition, even the prototypes of graphene supercapacitors are able to withstand many tens of thousands of working cycles without losing their characteristics. 
The trick, which made it possible to achieve such impressive indicators, is to obtain a special form of graphene, which has a huge area of \u200b\u200ban efficient surface. Researchers have obtained such a form of graphene, mixing particles of graphene oxide with hydrazine in water and grinding all this with ultrasound. The resulting graphene powder was packed in disco-shaped tablets and dried at a temperature of 140 degrees on the Celsius scale and at a pressure of 300 kg / cm for five hours.
The resulting material turned out to be very porous, in one gram of such a graphene material, its effective area corresponds to the area of \u200b\u200bthe basketball court. In addition, the porous nature of this material allows the ion electrolytic fluid Ebimf 1 m to fill in the entire volume of the material, which leads to an increase in the electrical capacity of the supercapacitor.
The measurement of the characteristics of the experimental supercondsators showed that their electric container is about 150 pharads per gram, the storage density of energy is 64 watts per kilogram, and the electric current density is 5 amperes per gram. All these characteristics are comparable to similar characteristics. lithium-ion batteries, Storage density of energy and which ranges from 100 to 200 watts per kilogram. But these supercapacitors have one huge advantage, they can fully charge or fully give all the accumulated charge in just 16 seconds. And this time is the fastest time of charge-discharge today.
This set of impressive characteristics, plus a simple technology of manufacturing graphene supercapacitors can serve as an excuse of researchers who wrote that they are "graphene supercacitor equipment of energy accumulation and are now ready for mass production and may appear in the nearest generations of electric cars."
A group of scientists from the University of Rice (Rice University) adapted the graphene production method developed by them using a laser for the manufacture of electrodes of supercapacitors.
From the moment of its discovery, the graphene, the carbon shape, the crystal lattice of which has a one-natural thickness, among other things, was considered as an alternative to the electrodes from activated carbon used in supercapacitors, capacitors with a large capacity and small currents of their own leakage. But the time and studies have shown that graphene electrodes do not work much better than the electrodes of microporous activated carbon, and this caused a decrease in enthusiasm and folding a number of studies.
However, graphene electrodes They have some undeniable advantages compared to porous carbon electrodes.
Grafenic supercapacitors can work for more high frequenciesAnd graphene flexibility allows you to create extremely thin and flexible energy accumulation devices based on it and, which are not better suited for use in wearable and flexible electronics.
The two above-mentioned advantages of graphene supercapacitors were the reason for regular research by a group of scientists from Rice University. They have adapted to the production method of graphene produced by them using a laser for the manufacture of supercapacitor electrodes.
"What we managed to achieve, comparable to microsupercondencators, which are available on the market electronic devices"- tells James Tour (James Tour), a scientist who led the research team -" With the help of our method, we can receive supercapacitators with any spatial form. If necessary, pack the graphene electrodes on a sufficiently small area, we just fold them as a sheet of paper. "
For the production of graphene electrodes, scientists used laser method (Laser-Induced Grapheme, Lig), in which a ray of a powerful laser is aimed at a target from an inexpensive polymer material.
The parameters of the laser light are selected in such a way that it burns out of the polymer all elements except carbon, which is formed in the form of a porous graphene film. This porous graphene, as studied studies, has a sufficiently large meaning of the effective surface area, which makes it an ideal material for supercapacitor electrodes.
What makes the results of research research from the University of Rice is so attractive, it is simplicity of the production of porous graphene.
"The graphene electrodes are made very simple. For this, no clean room is required and conventional industrial lasers are used in the process, which successfully operate in plants and even outdoors, "says James Tour.
In addition to ease of production, graphene supercapacitors showed very impressive characteristics. These accumulation devices have equipped and sustained without loss of electric capacity of thousands of charge-discharge cycles. Moreover, the electrical capacity of such supercapacitors has practically changed after the flexible supercapacitor was deformed 8 thousand times in a row.
"We demonstrated that the technology developed by us allows us to produce thin and flexible supercapacitators, which can become components of flexible electronics or energy sources and for wearable electronics, which can be built directly into clothing or in everyday items." Said James Tour.