The Super Supercapacitor

Ric Kaner set out to find a new way to make graphene, the thinnest and strongest material on earth. What he found was a new way to power the world.


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5 Comments

  1. Seriously, where’s the DIY manual for making graphene with a DVD player?!

  2. @Duane DIY manual: http://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/laser-scribing-of-high-performance-and-flexible-graphene-based-electrochemical-capacitors.pdf

    The making of a graphene cap is not new, people at Northwestern University (among others) have been doing it for a long time, the neat part is doing it in a lightscribe DVD player. From my quick examination the materials they used:

    1A) PVA (cheap, readily available electrolyte but poor ion density compared to 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium
    tetrafluoroborat)

    or

    1B) d 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium
    tetrafluoroborate Expensive but great capacitance!

    2) Graphite oxide expensive as 1B, but maybe someone has a DIY we can make ours for less?

    3)Polyethylene terephthalate – cheap and readily available, can be substituted with photocopy paper or aluminum foil.

  3. yes, we want such thing opensource and with adafruit style tutorial!

  4. Duane:
    I’m with you there! This type of technology is incredible. Charging a phone in only a matter of seconds? It would make cords and wires practically obsolete for a wide range of electronics! Imagine being able to link this type of charge and storage capacity, with a renewable energy source like solar or wind turbines. I am very excited for what the next decade has in store for us.

  5. Its a great concept except I have seen this pop up time and time again and have yet to see/hear anything about the entire process behind it. Maybe I will dig into it again.

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