Researchers have created a promising 3D energy-storage device using a porous aerogel. These 'supercapacitors' could offer much higher power densities than conventional structures.
Mahiar Hamedi at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and his colleagues coated the foamy interior of an aerogel with carbon nanotubes to create an electrode. They covered this with an insulating plastic, followed by another nanotube electrode layer. This formed a supercapacitor that showed stable charging and discharging over 400 cycles, and maintained its performance when the aerogel was compressed by up to 75%.
Aerogels have the largest internal surface area of any synthetic material, so such components could store large amounts of power in a range of electronic devices.
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Energy stored inside an aerogel. Nature 522, 130 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/522130b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/522130b
