When you hear energy storage and graphene mentioned in the same sentence this usually refers to electrical energy. Let’s take a brief look at some of the research that has been coming out of the labs recently…
Batteries
Energy storage is of critical interest in road transport because you have to carry the energy you need around with you. Electric vehicles (EVs) run on batteries.
Batteries work by storing electrical energy in a chemical reaction. When the battery is connected and circuit is made, the pathway for the reaction is opened and electricity is released in a controlled way.
There are two problems with the technology. Firstly the batteries take a long time to charge. Secondly they don’t store a lot of energy in comparison with liquid fuels like diesel.
This means you cannot travel long distances without recharging. Then when you connect to the power grid you have to wait quite some time for the batteries to recharge.
Improving batteries with graphene
Recent work reveals that graphene could help with the charging time. Samsung claim to have developed a graphene coating for the electrodes that can make batteries recharge faster.
The secret seems to be that they have made a graphene powder from graphite with a sophisticated milling technique developed by the Hosokawa Micron Corporation in Japan. This machine is called the Nobilta. It grinds up solid graphite to create an exfoliated graphene nanoplatelet powder that looks a bit like microscopic popcorn.
This form of graphene is coated on the battery electrodes. It has a high surface area, which means there are more sites for the chemical reaction to operate. This is why the reaction can go faster and this speeds up the charging time. However it is hard to see how this development can increase the energy density of the battery.
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