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Materials science

Energy storage wrapped up

Nature volume 509, pages 568–569 (2014)Cite this article

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Cables and wires are used to conduct electricity, but can they also store energy? The answer is a resounding 'yes', if they are encased by a supercapacitor device — a finding that might open up many applications.

Electrical cables entangle the world, supplying electricity to buildings, machines and electronic devices. The systems currently used to store electrical energy are separate from the cables, and are bulky contraptions often consisting of assemblies of 'supercapacitor' devices. Reporting in Advanced Materials, Yu and Thomas1 describe coaxial cables consisting of a copper core surrounded by a supercapacitor sheath, which can both transmit and store electricity.

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Figure 1: Energy-storing cables.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Yury Gogotsi is at the A. J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.,

    Yury Gogotsi

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  1. Yury Gogotsi
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Correspondence to Yury Gogotsi.

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Gogotsi, Y. Energy storage wrapped up. Nature 509, 568–569 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/509568a

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