University of Texas-Austin Develops Sponge Like Activated Graphene

Graphene has been put to use in one more way. Recently University of Texas-Austin (UT-Austin) developed a new material “sponge like carbon” or “Activated Graphene”. Department of Energy at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and UT-Austin have jointly contributed to a very important development in the field of energy storage by Supercapacitors. The team from UT-Austin was headed by Prof. Rodney S. Ruoff. The researchers have tried to incorporate ‘Activated Graphene’ in the supercapacitor to increase its specific energy density.

Ruoff while speaking of the new material said that the material developed by them is sponge like carbon. The surface area to weight ratio is 3100 m²/gm. The startling feature of this is that, the supercapacitors which will be using this carbon will have a life time of about 10,000 charges/ discharges.  The material will also be excellent as far as the heat management in the device is concerned. This ‘activated Graphene’ or ‘Sponge like Carbon’ is developed considering its possible commercialization. The processes used to make it spongy can be readily scaled to commercial level.

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The material is developed by University of Texas Austin researchers and the Brookhaven National Laboratory examined its atomic structure minutely on a nano scale using high capacity microscopes. The researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory have thus come to conclusion supporting the theory by their counterparts in UT-Austin. This confirmation from BNL is also a nod to Ruoff hypothesis that the newly found Carbon is a three dimensional structure with single atom thick curved walls forming tiny pores being correct. The BNL is also undergoing a study regarding potential uses of such nanomaterials and its properties. They are closely collaborating with Prof. Rodney Ruoff.

The development has added one more point in the ongoing debate of “Which are better, Super-capacitors or batteries?” Supercapacitors are comparable to batteries because both of them store energy. But Supercapacitors store charge in the form of ions much like static electricity while batteries store chemical energy. Until now, super capacitors always took a back seat to batteries whenever the question of higher energy storage came. Super capacitors were largely limited to mobile or hand-held devices. The current advancement in nanomaterials will help them to gain so much charge that no one would have ever anticipated.

The commercialization of this new concept will create interest not only amongst researchers and scientists but also entrepreneurs considering the cheap and effective manufacturing process. Taking into account the possible importance of this advancement Inventors from UT-Austin has filed for patent in US patent office. This material promises a bright future in energy storage applications.

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