New polymer to help create high-density supercapacitors for electric vehicles

08-Dec-16

While supercapacitors store energy efficiently, they have a poor density per kilogram, meaning they’re heavier and larger than traditional batteries.
A new polymer could be used to help create high-density supercapacitors. Batteries made using this new polymer could be used to help create electric car batteries that would drive for six to eight hours at a time, and then be recharged in a matter of minutes to get you back on the road. Imagine charging your car in the same time it takes to refill a tank of gas, instead of hours.

But the polymer’s potential uses don’t stop at batteries. Dr. Ian Hamerton, of the University of Bristol’s Department of Aerospace Engineering, said: “While this research has potentially opened the route to very high-density supercapacitors, these polymers have many other possible uses in which tough, flexible conducting materials are desirable, including bioelectronics, sensors, wearable electronics, and advanced optics. We believe that this is an extremely exciting and potentially game-changing development.”