Amazing!! Could This Really Solve the Battery Problems With Electric Vehicles??

Beyond batteries: Storing power in a sheet of paper
Researchers turn everyday paper into resilient, rechargeable energy storage device

Troy, N.Y. – Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new energy storage device that easily could be mistaken for a simple sheet of black paper.

The nanoengineered battery is lightweight, ultra thin, completely flexible, and geared toward meeting the trickiest design and energy requirements of tomorrow’s gadgets, implantable medical equipment, and transportation vehicles.

Along with its ability to function in temperatures up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 100 below zero, the device is completely integrated and can be printed like paper. The device is also unique in that it can function as both a high-energy battery and a high-power supercapacitor, which are generally separate components in most electrical systems. Another key feature is the capability to use human blood or sweat to help power the battery.

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Along with its ability to function in temperatures up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 100 below zero, the device is completely integrated and can be printed like paper. The device is also unique in that it can function as both a high-energy battery and a high-power supercapacitor, which are generally separate components in most electrical systems. Another key feature is the capability to use human blood or sweat to help power the battery.

Details of the project are outlined in the paper “Flexible Energy Storage Devices Based on Nanocomposite Paper” published Aug. 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The semblance to paper is no accident: more than 90 percent of the device is made up of cellulose, the same plant cells used in newsprint, loose leaf, lunch bags, and nearly every other type of paper.

Rensselaer researchers infused this paper with aligned carbon nanotubes, which give the device its black color. The nanotubes act as electrodes and allow the storage devices to conduct electricity. The device, engineered to function as both a lithium-ion battery and a supercapacitor, can provide the long, steady power output comparable to a conventional battery, as well as a supercapacitor’s quick burst of high energy.

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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/rpi-bbs080907.php

It looks very interesting but until we see how much power it can store and for how long it doesn't really mean much.

we could one day live in a world without gas stations.

Powered with blood and sweat. And, perhaps, tears?

This means completely biodegradable, doesn't it?

Wake up, Neo...

“It’s essentially a regular piece of paper, but it’s made in a very intelligent way,” said paper co-author Robert Linhardt, the Ann and John H. Broadbent Senior Constellation Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering at Rensselaer.

“We’re not putting pieces together – it’s a single, integrated device,” he said. “The components are molecularly attached to each other: the carbon nanotube print is embedded in the paper, and the electrolyte is soaked into the paper. The end result is a device that looks, feels, and weighs the same as paper.”

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The materials required to create the paper batteries are inexpensive, Murugesan said, but the team has not yet developed a way to inexpensively mass produce the devices. The end goal is to print the paper using a roll-to-roll system similar to how newspapers are printed.

“When we get this technology down, we’ll basically have the ability to print batteries and print supercapacitors,” Ajayan said. “We see this as a technology that’s just right for the current energy market, as well as the electronics industry, which is always looking for smaller, lighter power sources. Our device could make its way into any number of different applications.”

The paper energy storage device project was supported by the New York State Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research (NYSTAR), as well as the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center at Rensselaer.



(Credit: Rensselaer/Victor Pushparaj)

Sorry - hate to throw cold water

"Printed like paper" kinda tells me it is very very thin and therefore would have difficulty conducting High Amperage Loads such as electric motors for cars

because the sun's mass couldn't conceivably allow it to shine longer than that?

I don't want to get into the specifics of Kelvin's error (i.e. that he had no conception of thermonuclear energy), but want to make the general point that assertions about the impossibility of things often tend to stem from ignorance.

Like, who was it that said that heavier-than-air flight is impossible due to the limitations of physics? There were probably birds, butterflies an bats flying around him as he wrote those words.

OK - pile a million sheets of paper together and maybe, just maybe you'll get 100amp/hr because if you want to make Electric cars a viable solution that is what it takes.

There is "other" nano-tube technology out there that can provide the solutions you are looking for. Try doing a Google search and a little reading before you internalize every thing anyone says contrary to your green thinking as hostile

can make this cost-effective and powerful enough to replace batteries for smaller electronics then that is all the more reason to start bringing hemp back as a major crop! It would double any benefits.

Also, are their not important environmental concerns and issues about nano-materials both as product and waste? I recall reading several articles that bring the ultra-small size of Bucky Balls and such as being potentially impacting as they move into the ecosphere.

another great step toward the coming Robot Wars. And I for one, welcome our new robot masters....

;)

this is cool! Even if it doesn't hold a lot of power alone, perhaps in an array (a battery of batteries?) it could do well.

My money is still on Altairnano, though -> http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1258

Where does anyone think the additional generation necessary to power automobiles is going to come from? Burning more coal possibly?