Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, November 23 (Reporter Zhang Jiaxin) Under the guidance of machine learning, researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States have designed a record-breaking carbon-based supercapacitor material that stores four times the energy of the current best commercial material. Supercapacitors made with this new material can store more energy, thereby improving regenerative braking systems, power electronic devices and auxiliary power supplies. The relevant paper was published in the latest issue of Nature Communications.
The researchers said that they have created a carbon material with enhanced physicochemical and electrochemical properties, pushing the energy storage boundaries of carbon-based supercapacitors to a new level. This is the highest storage capacity of porous carbon ever recorded and is a “real milestone.”
Commercial supercapacitors have two electrodes, an anode and a cathode, which are separated and immersed in an electrolyte. At the interface between the electrolyte and the carbon, the double layer reversibly separates the charge. The preferred material for making supercapacitor electrodes is porous carbon. These pores provide a large surface area for storing electrostatic charges.
