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Plastic supercapacitor breaks records for capacity and service life

Thanks to its large surface area, PEDOT can be used as an electricity storage device. (Image source: UCLA/Maher El-Kady)
Thanks to its large surface area, PEDOT can be used as an electricity storage device. (Image source: UCLA/Maher El-Kady)
PEDOT is a conductive polymer that protects electronics from static discharges, but it can also store electricity. So much and so often that it could conceivably be used as an energy storage device.

The high conductivity and capacity of PEDOT, a polymer of hydrocarbon rings, are largely limited by the fact that its surface area is very small. This factor determines the electrical properties of any capacitor.

Researchers at the University of California have modified this structure so that it very much resembles fur or a pelt. In other words, the available surface area has been massively expanded by using carbon nanotubes and graphene as carrier materials. This increases the capacity to a value of 4,600 millifarads per square centimeter, which is ten times higher than with classic PEDOT. In addition, this allows for much greater durability: After 70,000 charging cycles, 70% of the original capacity was still available. In total, almost 100,000 charging cycles can be carried out.

There is another advantage compared to conventional battery cells: as no chemical processes are required for storage, very high charging and discharging capacities are possible. Designed on larger scale, these could be integrated into power grids for storing excess energy directly and releasing it again just as quickly when needed.

Given the extremely long service life (which would be almost 10 years even if discharged every hour), the high storage capacity and the very high charging capacity, a wide range of applications are conceivable. Solar cells, for example, are already being combined with capacitors to balance out fluctuations in production.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2025 01 > Plastic supercapacitor breaks records for capacity and service life
Mario Petzold, 2025-01-25 (Update: 2025-01-25)