Graphene battery announced

[Carl White]

From a Spanish company, Graphenano, the claims are:

* Could allow electric vehicles a maximum range of 800 km.
* Charges in a few minutes.
* Energy density of 1kWh/kg.
* Exhibits no "memory effect".
* Not prone to explosions.
* Prototypes as early as mid-2016.

http://futurism.com/scientists-develop- ... -graphene/

EEStor all over again? No prototype yet? I'll watch but I won't hold my breath.

[PolyGirl]

Yeah, don't hold your breath. Refer to this article Revolutionary graphene polymer batteries for electric cars dated Dec 16, 2014.

Regards
PolyGirl

[ladajo]

Holy Cow! PolyGirl returns from the dead!

Nice to see you back. DId you read the thread from Dr. Park?

[PolyGirl]

The news of my death was greatly exaggerated. Having said that I just lurked behind the scenes and yes I have read the Dr Park's paper. Heavenly stuff!

Thanks for the recognition Ladajo

Regards
PolyGirl

[ladajo]

You are welcome, I am always happy to see long timers active on the board.

I was speaking of the Dr. Park Q & A thread:

viewtopic.php?f=7&p=124514#p124514

I am still not sure if you saw it, it not, it is well worth the trip.

[krenshala]

From a Spanish company, Graphenano, the claims are:

* Could allow electric vehicles a maximum range of 800 km.
* Charges in a few minutes.
* Energy density of 1kWh/kg.
* Exhibits no "memory effect".
* Not prone to explosions.
* Prototypes as early as mid-2016.

http://futurism.com/scientists-develop- ... -graphene/

EEStor all over again? No prototype yet? I'll watch but I won't hold my breath.

If it really can do 1kWh/kg that will make one hell of a difference in (hybrid) electric vehicles.

I get normally an average of 4 miles per kWh on my Chevy Volt (about 3 mi/kWh in the cold of winter) for an electric range of 45 to 50 miles (11kWh used of the 197kg, 17kWh battery; the unused charge is to help preserve battery life from what I understand). A straight up weight for weight replacement means this new battery type would give me 197kWh battery. Even preserving 25% of the battery to maintain life, as with Li-ion, that would give nearly 600 miles of range for the 147 kWh available. That is more than the 250 - 300 mi gasoline range of the vehicle (8 gallons, and about 42 mpg highway with the regenerative braking but otherwise not using the battery).

Or, to phrase it another way, if they actually end up making batteries with these specs I want to know how to replace the Li-ion pack in my Volt with one of these.

[PolyGirl]

Thanks Ladajo

Yes I have read the Q & A for Parks, but I have not seen the reply to those questions, may have missed it or the answers have not surfaced just yet. I know Joe Strout collated the questions into a more coherent list. That was last I read about the Q & A for Dr Parks. If you have any further insights, I would certainly be interested.

Regards
PolyGirl

[Skipjack]

Color me skeptical. However, if it really does work, it would be quite revolutionary. It could be a real game changer. I hear that those batteries are also supposed to be a lot cheaper than Li- ion batteries. Electric cars could finally be cheaper than gasoline cars and/or have more range. Transportation would be completely changed (and many other areas too, probably).
I seriously doubt their claims of charging times, though. They make no sense. You cant get that much energy out of a normal power outlet. However, it could be that they are simply talking about smaller applications, like cellphones and then were misquoted. I could imagine those charging that fast.

[ladajo]

Dr. Parks' answers are there in the thread. They were posted over two responses.
They complement and add some depth to his Physics Review paper from June of last year nicely.

[Tom Ligon]

If graphene does half the things it is supposed to do, we may look back and call this the "carbon age". \

We discussed a theoretical thermoelectric material based on graphene last year. If it ever actually works (they only seem to have a firm grasp on 1/2 of the thermocouple), efficiency for producing power from heat could be up in the 60%+ range, at which point we probably would not bother with photovoltaics, we'd just let the sun heat up a black plate with a heat sink on the back. And then charge the graphene battery.

I'm not holding my breath, but this would be really cool and disruptive.

[rjaypeters]

Then there's this:

Researchers Develop Supercondenser That Can be Charged by the Sun

"Researchers at the Laboratory for Organic Electronics at Linköping University, Sweden, have created a supercondenser that can be charged by the sun. It contains no expensive or hazardous materials, has patents pending, and it should be fully possible to manufacture it on an industrial scale.

In the future we could have a completely new type of energy storage, charged by heat energy – for example during the day when the sun shines, or by waste heat from an industrial process. The heat is converted to electricity, which can be stored until it is needed. The results have recently been published in the esteemed journal Energy Environmental Science."

My favorite quote:

"Postdoctoral students Dan Zhao and Hui Wang, and doctoral student Zia Ullah Khan, found the right polymers after years of fruitless experiments. They produced an electrolyte with 100 times greater ability to convert heat to electricity than the electrolytes normally used.

"We still don't know exactly why we're getting this effect. But the fact is that we can convert and store 2,500 times more energy than the best of today's supercondensers linked to thermoelectric generators," Professor Crispin says."

Look here:

http://phys.org/news/2016-03-superconde ... ntent=link

[ladajo]

That's pretty cool and scary at the same time. Talk about disruptive potential...

[Giorgio]

I hate when they don't give a minimum amount of proper technical information while making such revolutionary claims......

[ladajo]

Looks like the formal paper is not out yet. It seems to be the announcement cliff notes.

[D Tibbets]

Some extravagant claims (EEStore anyone?) I do not know the technical values well. What is a 2500 improvement? Compared to what? Batteries have various energy storage capacities. The same for capacitors (or condensers). 1000 units per unit of weight or volume may be good. What is the capacity in typical electrolytic capacitors currently?
What is the capacity of current li ion batteries?

I recently read a swtory on using hemp fibers to oproduce a capacitor matrix with ~ 30 to 40 units of energy storage. At least they went further to claim that a system (complete capacitor) may have 25 units storage capacity. M. Simon might like this technology. Again, how does this compare to current technology? KW hr/ kg units or other? Hemp may be a substantially cheaper substrate to work with, etc.

Dan Tibbets