Swedish researchers have developed a paper supercapacitor that has been dubbed a ‘dream product’ for storing energy.
Scientists at the Linköping University’s Laboratory of Organic Electronics have developed a ‘power paper’ material that consists of nanocellulose and a conductive polymer.
The team demonstrated that a sheet 15 centimetres in diameter and a few tenths of a millimetre thick can store as much as 1 Farad of electric charge.
They claim the material can be recharged in a few seconds and has a cycle life in the hundreds.
Thin films that function as capacitors already exist, but this is the first time the material has been produced in three dimensions to form thick sheets, says Xavier Crispin, professor of organic electronics at the university.
In tests, the material set new world records for: highest charge and capacitance in organic electronics, 1 C Coulomb and 2 Farad; highest measured current in an organic conductor, 1Ampere; highest capacity to simultaneously conduct ions and electrons; highest transconductance in a transistor, 1 Siemens.
The team, which involves scientists from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Innventia, Technical University of Denmark and the University of Kentucky, is planning to develop an industrial-scale process for manufacturing the power paper.
Picture: Part of the research group at Laboratory of Organic Electronics- Jesper Edberg, Isak Engquist and Xavier Crispin
