Enhanced Capacitance in Carbon-Nanotube Based Electrode Systems for Supercapacitors

Technology

UC San Diego researchers have developed the methods materials and designs for producing electrochemical capacitors based on carbon nanotube electrodes with enhanced capacitance due to the addition of charged defects. Specifically exposure to argon is used to controllably incorporate extrinsic defects into CNTs and increase the magnitude of both the pseudo-capacitance and double-layer capacitance by as much as 50% and 200% respectively compared to untreated electrodes. The invention’s defect-engineered carbon-nanotube electrochemical capacitors present the promise of supercapacitors that have high power density and high energy density. Further the technology is scalable making it useful for a broad range of energy storage and energy management applications (e.g. dynamic storage in microgrids hybrid/electric vehicles and wireless devices).

Benefits

Useful for a broad range of energy storage and energy management applications (e.g. dynamic storage in microgrids hybrid/electric vehicles and wireless devices).

Date of release