Novel energy-storage membrane: Performance surpasses existing rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors

ScienceDaily (Sep. 29, 2011) — A team from the National University of Singapore's Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative (NUSNNI), led by principle investigator Dr Xie Xian Ning, has developed a novel energy-storage membrane.

Electrical energy storage and its management are becoming urgent issues due to climate change and energy shortage. Existing technologies such as rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors are based on complicated configurations including liquid electrolytes, and suffer from difficulties in scaling-up and high fabrication costs. There is also growing public concern and awareness of the impact of traditional energy sources on the environment, spurring a continued search for alternative, green, sustainable energy sources.

Cost-effective and environmentally-friendly

Recognising the issue, Dr Xie and his team have developed a membrane that not only promises greater cost-effectiveness in delivering energy, but also an environmentally-friendly solution. The researchers used a polystyrene-based polymer to deposit the soft, foldable membrane that, when sandwiched between and charged by two metal plates, could store charge at 0.2 farads per square centimeter. This is well above the typical upper limit of 1 microfarad per square centimetre for a standard capacitor.

The cost involved in energy storage is also drastically reduced. With existing technologies based on liquid electrolytes, it costs about US$7 to store each farad. With the advanced energy storage membrane, the cost to store each farad falls to an impressive US$0.62. This translates to an energy cost of 10-20 watt-hour per US dollar for the membrane, as compared to just 2.5 watt-hour per US dollar for lithium ion batteries.

Dr Xie said: "Compared to rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors, the proprietary membrane allows for very simple device configuration and low fabrication cost. Moreover, the performance of the membrane surpasses those of rechargeable batteries, such as lithium ion and lead-acid batteries, and supercapacitors."

The research is supported by grants from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research & Technology (SMART), and National Research Foundation. Dr Xie and his team started work on the membrane early last year and took about 1.5 years to reach their current status, and have successfully filed a US patent for this novel invention.

The discovery was featured in Energy & Environmental Science and highlighted by the international journal Nature.

Potential applications: From hybrid vehicles to solar panels and wind turbines

The membrane could be used in hybrid vehicles for instant power storage and delivery, thus improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emission. Potentially, hybrid cars with the membrane technology could be powered by the energy stored in the membranes in conjunction with the energy provided by fuel combustion, increasing the lifespan of car batteries and cutting down on waste.

The membrane could also be integrated into solar panels and wind turbines to store and manage the electricity generated. Energy provided through these sources is prone to instability due to their dependence on natural factors. By augmenting these energy sources with the membrane, the issue of instability could potentially be negated, as surplus energy generated can be instantly stored in the membranes, and delivered for use at a stable rate at times when natural factors are insufficient, such as a lack of solar power during night-time.

Next Step

The research team has demonstrated the membrane's superior performance in energy storage using prototype devices. The team is currently exploring opportunities to work with venture capitalists to commercialise the membrane. To date, several venture capitalists have expressed strong interest in the technology.

"With the advent of our novel membrane, energy storage technology will be more accessible, affordable, and producible on a large scale. It is also environmentally-friendly and could change the current status of energy technology," Dr Xie said.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by National University of Singapore, via AlphaGalileo.

Journal References:

Xie Xian Ning. Energy technology: Supersizing a supercapacitor. Nature, 477, 9; 01 September 2011 DOI: 10.1038/477009cXian Ning Xie, Kian Keat Lee, Junzhong Wang, Kian Ping Loh. Polarizable energy-storage membrane based on ionic condensation and decondensation. Energy & Environmental Science, 2011; 4 (10): 3960 DOI: 10.1039/C1EE01841H

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Novel energy-storage membrane: Performance surpasses existing rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors

ScienceDaily (Sep. 29, 2011) — A team from the National University of Singapore's Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative (NUSNNI), led by principle investigator Dr Xie Xian Ning, has developed a novel energy-storage membrane.

Electrical energy storage and its management are becoming urgent issues due to climate change and energy shortage. Existing technologies such as rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors are based on complicated configurations including liquid electrolytes, and suffer from difficulties in scaling-up and high fabrication costs. There is also growing public concern and awareness of the impact of traditional energy sources on the environment, spurring a continued search for alternative, green, sustainable energy sources.

Cost-effective and environmentally-friendly

Recognising the issue, Dr Xie and his team have developed a membrane that not only promises greater cost-effectiveness in delivering energy, but also an environmentally-friendly solution. The researchers used a polystyrene-based polymer to deposit the soft, foldable membrane that, when sandwiched between and charged by two metal plates, could store charge at 0.2 farads per square centimeter. This is well above the typical upper limit of 1 microfarad per square centimetre for a standard capacitor.

The cost involved in energy storage is also drastically reduced. With existing technologies based on liquid electrolytes, it costs about US$7 to store each farad. With the advanced energy storage membrane, the cost to store each farad falls to an impressive US$0.62. This translates to an energy cost of 10-20 watt-hour per US dollar for the membrane, as compared to just 2.5 watt-hour per US dollar for lithium ion batteries.

Dr Xie said: "Compared to rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors, the proprietary membrane allows for very simple device configuration and low fabrication cost. Moreover, the performance of the membrane surpasses those of rechargeable batteries, such as lithium ion and lead-acid batteries, and supercapacitors."

The research is supported by grants from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research & Technology (SMART), and National Research Foundation. Dr Xie and his team started work on the membrane early last year and took about 1.5 years to reach their current status, and have successfully filed a US patent for this novel invention.

The discovery was featured in Energy & Environmental Science and highlighted by the international journal Nature.

Potential applications: From hybrid vehicles to solar panels and wind turbines

The membrane could be used in hybrid vehicles for instant power storage and delivery, thus improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emission. Potentially, hybrid cars with the membrane technology could be powered by the energy stored in the membranes in conjunction with the energy provided by fuel combustion, increasing the lifespan of car batteries and cutting down on waste.

The membrane could also be integrated into solar panels and wind turbines to store and manage the electricity generated. Energy provided through these sources is prone to instability due to their dependence on natural factors. By augmenting these energy sources with the membrane, the issue of instability could potentially be negated, as surplus energy generated can be instantly stored in the membranes, and delivered for use at a stable rate at times when natural factors are insufficient, such as a lack of solar power during night-time.

Next Step

The research team has demonstrated the membrane's superior performance in energy storage using prototype devices. The team is currently exploring opportunities to work with venture capitalists to commercialise the membrane. To date, several venture capitalists have expressed strong interest in the technology.

"With the advent of our novel membrane, energy storage technology will be more accessible, affordable, and producible on a large scale. It is also environmentally-friendly and could change the current status of energy technology," Dr Xie said.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by National University of Singapore, via AlphaGalileo.

Journal References:

Xie Xian Ning. Energy technology: Supersizing a supercapacitor. Nature, 477, 9; 01 September 2011 DOI: 10.1038/477009cXian Ning Xie, Kian Keat Lee, Junzhong Wang, Kian Ping Loh. Polarizable energy-storage membrane based on ionic condensation and decondensation. Energy & Environmental Science, 2011; 4 (10): 3960 DOI: 10.1039/C1EE01841H

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Super energy storage: Activated graphene makes superior supercapacitors for energy storage

ScienceDaily (May 13, 2011) — Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have helped to uncover the nanoscale structure of a novel form of carbon, contributing to an explanation of why this new material acts like a super-absorbent sponge when it comes to soaking up electric charge. The material, which was recently created at The University of Texas -- Austin, can be incorporated into "supercapacitor" energy-storage devices with remarkably high storage capacity while retaining other attractive attributes such as superfast energy release, quick recharge time, and a lifetime of at least 10,000 charge/discharge cycles.

"Those properties make this new form of carbon particularly attractive for meeting electrical energy storage needs that also require a quick release of energy -- for instance, in electric vehicles or to smooth out power availability from intermittent energy sources, such as wind and solar power," said Brookhaven materials scientist Eric Stach, a co-author on a paper describing the material published in Science on May 12, 2011.

Supercapacitors are similar to batteries in that both store electric charge. Batteries do so through chemical reactions between metallic electrodes and a liquid electrolyte. Because these chemicals take time to react, energy is stored and released relatively slowly. But batteries can store a lot of energy and release it over a fairly long time.

Supercapacitors, on the other hand, store charge in the form of ions on the surface of the electrodes, similar to static electricity, rather than relying on chemical reactions. Charging the electrodes causes ions in the electrolyte to separate, or polarize, as well -- so charge gets stored at the interface between the electrodes and the electrolyte. Pores in the electrode increase the surface area over which the electrolyte can flow and interact -- increasing the amount of energy that can be stored.

But because most supercapacitors can't hold nearly as much charge as batteries, their use has been limited to applications where smaller amounts of energy are needed quickly, or where long life cycle is essential, such as in mobile electronic devices.

The new material developed by the UT-Austin researchers may change that. Supercapacitors made from it have an energy-storage capacity, or energy density, that is approaching the energy density of lead-acid batteries, while retaining the high power density -- that is, rapid energy release -- that is characteristic of supercapacitors.

"This new material combines the attributes of both electrical storage systems," said University of Texas team leader Rodney Ruoff. "We were rather stunned by its exceptional performance."

The UT-Austin team had set out to create a more porous form of carbon by using potassium hydroxide to restructure chemically modified graphene platelets -- a form of carbon where the atoms are arrayed in tile-like rings laying flat to form single-atom-thick sheets. Such "chemical activation" has been previously used to create various forms of "activated carbon," which have pores that increase surface area and are used in filters and other applications, including supercapacitors.

But because this new form of carbon was so superior to others used in supercapacitors, the UT-Austin researchers knew they'd need to characterize its structure at the nanoscale.

Ruoff had formed a hypothesis that the material consisted of a continuous three-dimensional porous network with single-atom-thick walls, with a significant fraction being "negative curvature carbon," similar to inside-out buckyballs. He turned to Stach at Brookhaven for help with further structural characterization to verify or refute this hypothesis.

Stach and Brookhaven colleague Dong Su conducted a wide range of studies at the Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials, the National Synchrotron Light Source, and at the National Center for Electron Microscopy at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, all three facilities supported by the DOE Office of Science. "At the DOE laboratories, we have the highest resolution microscopes in the world, so we really went full bore into characterizing the atomic structure," Stach said.

"Our studies revealed that Ruoff's hypothesis was in fact correct, and that the material's three-dimensional nanoscale structure consists of a network of highly curved, single-atom-thick walls forming tiny pores with widths ranging from 1 to 5 nanometers, or billionths of a meter."

The study includes detailed images of the fine pore structure and the carbon walls themselves, as well as images that show how these details fit into the big picture. "The data from NSLS were crucial to showing that our highly local characterization was representative of the overall material," Stach said.

"We're still working with Ruoff and his team to pull together a complete description of the material structure. We're also adding computational studies to help us understand how this three-dimensional network forms, so that we can potentially tailor the pore sizes to be optimal for specific applications, including capacitive storage, catalysis, and fuel cells," Stach said.

Meanwhile, the scientists say the processing techniques used to create the new form of carbon are readily scalable to industrial production. "This material -- being so easily manufactured from one of the most abundant elements in the universe -- will have a broad range impacts on research and technology in both energy storage and energy conversion," Ruoff said.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Journal Reference:

Yanwu Zhu, Shanthi Murali, Meryl D. Stoller, K. J. Ganesh, Weiwei Cai, Paulo J. Ferreira, Adam Pirkle, Robert M. Wallace, Katie A. Cychosz, Matthias Thommes, Dong Su, Eric A. Stach and Rodney S. Ruoff. Carbon-Based Supercapacitors Produced by Activation of Graphene. Science, 12 May 2011 DOI: 10.1126/science.1200770

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Super energy storage: Activated graphene makes superior supercapacitors for energy storage

ScienceDaily (May 13, 2011) — Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have helped to uncover the nanoscale structure of a novel form of carbon, contributing to an explanation of why this new material acts like a super-absorbent sponge when it comes to soaking up electric charge. The material, which was recently created at The University of Texas -- Austin, can be incorporated into "supercapacitor" energy-storage devices with remarkably high storage capacity while retaining other attractive attributes such as superfast energy release, quick recharge time, and a lifetime of at least 10,000 charge/discharge cycles.

"Those properties make this new form of carbon particularly attractive for meeting electrical energy storage needs that also require a quick release of energy -- for instance, in electric vehicles or to smooth out power availability from intermittent energy sources, such as wind and solar power," said Brookhaven materials scientist Eric Stach, a co-author on a paper describing the material published in Science on May 12, 2011.

Supercapacitors are similar to batteries in that both store electric charge. Batteries do so through chemical reactions between metallic electrodes and a liquid electrolyte. Because these chemicals take time to react, energy is stored and released relatively slowly. But batteries can store a lot of energy and release it over a fairly long time.

Supercapacitors, on the other hand, store charge in the form of ions on the surface of the electrodes, similar to static electricity, rather than relying on chemical reactions. Charging the electrodes causes ions in the electrolyte to separate, or polarize, as well -- so charge gets stored at the interface between the electrodes and the electrolyte. Pores in the electrode increase the surface area over which the electrolyte can flow and interact -- increasing the amount of energy that can be stored.

But because most supercapacitors can't hold nearly as much charge as batteries, their use has been limited to applications where smaller amounts of energy are needed quickly, or where long life cycle is essential, such as in mobile electronic devices.

The new material developed by the UT-Austin researchers may change that. Supercapacitors made from it have an energy-storage capacity, or energy density, that is approaching the energy density of lead-acid batteries, while retaining the high power density -- that is, rapid energy release -- that is characteristic of supercapacitors.

"This new material combines the attributes of both electrical storage systems," said University of Texas team leader Rodney Ruoff. "We were rather stunned by its exceptional performance."

The UT-Austin team had set out to create a more porous form of carbon by using potassium hydroxide to restructure chemically modified graphene platelets -- a form of carbon where the atoms are arrayed in tile-like rings laying flat to form single-atom-thick sheets. Such "chemical activation" has been previously used to create various forms of "activated carbon," which have pores that increase surface area and are used in filters and other applications, including supercapacitors.

But because this new form of carbon was so superior to others used in supercapacitors, the UT-Austin researchers knew they'd need to characterize its structure at the nanoscale.

Ruoff had formed a hypothesis that the material consisted of a continuous three-dimensional porous network with single-atom-thick walls, with a significant fraction being "negative curvature carbon," similar to inside-out buckyballs. He turned to Stach at Brookhaven for help with further structural characterization to verify or refute this hypothesis.

Stach and Brookhaven colleague Dong Su conducted a wide range of studies at the Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials, the National Synchrotron Light Source, and at the National Center for Electron Microscopy at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, all three facilities supported by the DOE Office of Science. "At the DOE laboratories, we have the highest resolution microscopes in the world, so we really went full bore into characterizing the atomic structure," Stach said.

"Our studies revealed that Ruoff's hypothesis was in fact correct, and that the material's three-dimensional nanoscale structure consists of a network of highly curved, single-atom-thick walls forming tiny pores with widths ranging from 1 to 5 nanometers, or billionths of a meter."

The study includes detailed images of the fine pore structure and the carbon walls themselves, as well as images that show how these details fit into the big picture. "The data from NSLS were crucial to showing that our highly local characterization was representative of the overall material," Stach said.

"We're still working with Ruoff and his team to pull together a complete description of the material structure. We're also adding computational studies to help us understand how this three-dimensional network forms, so that we can potentially tailor the pore sizes to be optimal for specific applications, including capacitive storage, catalysis, and fuel cells," Stach said.

Meanwhile, the scientists say the processing techniques used to create the new form of carbon are readily scalable to industrial production. "This material -- being so easily manufactured from one of the most abundant elements in the universe -- will have a broad range impacts on research and technology in both energy storage and energy conversion," Ruoff said.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Journal Reference:

Yanwu Zhu, Shanthi Murali, Meryl D. Stoller, K. J. Ganesh, Weiwei Cai, Paulo J. Ferreira, Adam Pirkle, Robert M. Wallace, Katie A. Cychosz, Matthias Thommes, Dong Su, Eric A. Stach and Rodney S. Ruoff. Carbon-Based Supercapacitors Produced by Activation of Graphene. Science, 12 May 2011 DOI: 10.1126/science.1200770

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here