From a structural point of view, supercapacitors are mainly composed of electrodes, electrolytes, separators, end plates, leads and packaging materials. The composition and quality of electrodes, electrolytes and separators play a decisive role in the performance of supercapacitors. Impact, which electrode plate and electrolyte materials are used will basically determine the type and characteristics of the final product.
On January 16, 2007, a company in Texas, USA, called EEStor, which develops electric vehicle energy storage devices, broke their silence and announced their "milestone" results: their automatic production line has been According to independent third-party analysis and acceptance, the key substance of its product, barium titanate powder, has completed the initial purification, and the purity has reached 99.9994.
Once this technology enters mature industrial production, the new supercapacitor power system they developed will replace electrochemical batteries in everything from electric cars to laptop computers. According to the patent published in April 2006, the energy storage device EEStor is made of ceramic powder coated on the surface of aluminum oxide and glass. Technically speaking, it is not a battery, but a supercapacitor. It can charge an electric car 500 miles in 5 minutes, and the electricity bill is only 9 US dollars. A gasoline-burning internal combustion engine costs $60 to cover the same mileage.
Supercapacitors have many benefits compared to traditional electrochemical cells. It can accept countless discharges and charges without limit, and supercapacitors have no "memory". However, general supercapacitors also have their weaknesses, that is, the energy storage rate is limited. The high-end supercapacitors on the market can only store 1/25 of the energy per 0.4536 kilogram of lithium batteries.
As for the supercapacitor developed by EEStor, due to the sufficient purity of barium titanate, the ability to store energy is greatly improved. The person in charge of EEStor claimed that the supercapacitor can store up to 0.28 kilowatt-hours of energy per kilogram, compared with 0.12 kilowatt-hours per kilogram of lithium batteries and only 0.032 kilowatt-hours for lead-acid batteries. This makes supercapacitors It may be used in a variety of fields, from electric vehicles to pacemakers to modern weapons. A good lead-acid battery can be charged 500 to 700 times, and according to EEStor's statement, the new supercapacitor can be recharged more than 1 million times without material degradation. Moreover, because it is not a chemical battery, but a solid-state energy storage system, there is no danger of overheating or even explosion like lithium batteries, and there is no safety hazard.
This invention is of great significance. This breakthrough will not only fundamentally change the position of electric vehicles in transportation, but will also improve the utilization performance of intermittent energy sources such as wind energy and solar energy, and enhance the power grid. The efficiency and stability can meet people's energy security needs and reduce dependence on oil. Obviously, this breakthrough also poses a threat to developers of the next generation of lithium batteries. The person in charge of EEStor hinted that their technology is not only suitable for small passenger electric vehicles, but may also replace large cars with 220,500 watts.