Windpower Engineering & Development

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Most recent posts
    • News
    • Featured
  • Resources
    • Digital issues
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
    • Webinars
    • Events
  • Videos
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
  • Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Supercapacitor potential sports 60 Wh/liter

By Paul Dvorak | August 8, 2013

Monash U. Professor Dan Li

Monash U. Professor Dan Li

Monash University researchers have brought next generation energy storage closer with an engineering first: a compact graphene-based device that lasts as long as a conventional battery.

Published recently in Science, a research team led by Professor Dan Li of the Department of Materials Engineering has developed a new strategy to engineer graphene-based supercapacitors, making them viable for widespread use in renewable energy storage, portable electronics, and electric vehicles.

Supercaps are generally made of highly porous carbon impregnated with a liquid electrolyte to transport the electrical charge. Known for their almost indefinite lifespan and an ability to re-charge in seconds, the drawback of existing supercaps is their low energy-storage-to-volume ratio – known as energy density. Low energy density of five to eight Wh/liter, means SCs are unfeasibly large or must be re-charged frequently.

Professor Li’s team has created an SC with energy density of 60 Watt-hours per litre, a value comparable to lead-acid batteries and around 12 times higher than commercially available SCs.

“It has long been a challenge to make SCs smaller, lighter, and compact to meet the increasingly demanding needs of many commercial uses,” Professor Li said.

Graphene, formed when graphite is broken into layers one atom thick, is very strong, chemically stable, and an excellent electrical conductor.

To make their uniquely compact electrode, Professor Li’s team exploited an adaptive graphene gel film they had previously developed. They used liquid electrolytes – generally the conductor in traditional SCs – to control the spacing between graphene sheets on the sub-nanometer scale. In this way the liquid electrolyte played a dual role: maintaining the minute space between the graphene sheets and conducting electricity.

Unlike traditional ‘hard’ porous carbon, where space is wasted with unnecessarily large ‘pores’, Professor Li’s electrode maximizes density without compromising porosity.

To create their material, the research team used a method similar to that used in traditional paper making, meaning the process could be easily and cost-effectively scaled up for industrial use. “We have created a macroscopic graphene material that is a step beyond what has been achieved previously. It is almost at the stage of moving from the lab to commercial development,” Professor Li said. The work was supported by the Australian Research Council.

Monash University

www.monash.edu


Filed Under: Energy storage, News
Tagged With: danli, monashu, monsashuniversity
 

About The Author

Paul Dvorak

Related Articles Read More >

Richardson Electronics to deliver pitch energy modules to TransAlta wind fleets
Equinor halts work on Empire Wind offshore project after federal government order
ARESCA wants input on offshore wind standards
US wind market has worst install year since 2013

Podcasts

Wind Spotlight: Looking back at a year of Thrive with ZF Wind Power
See More >

Windpower Engineering & Development Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Browse the most current issue of Windpower Engineering & Development and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading wind power engineering magazine today.

Windpower Engineering & Development
  • Wind Articles
  • Solar Power World
  • Subscribe to Windpower Engineering
  • About Us/Contact Us

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising

Search Windpower Engineering & Development

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Most recent posts
    • News
    • Featured
  • Resources
    • Digital issues
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
    • Webinars
    • Events
  • Videos
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
  • Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe