Charging and batteries are soon going to have a very different meaning
While generating renewable energy gets all the hype, storing it tends to be relegated to the back pages. The current best option are lithium batteries, which, while being long lasting and adept at storing electricity, is a rather costly and environmentally unsafe undertaking when it comes to mining for it.
Enter supercapacitors. As the name suggests, they regulate and store energy to an extent that they can be put to use within larger equipment, such as cars and heavy machinery. And the latest compound that’s making the waves with supercapacitors is concrete.
No, you read that right. Concrete supercapacitors, made up of cement, water, and carbon black, charge much more quickly than batteries and don’t suffer from a similar level of degradation. While research around it is still in progress, there have been a few encouraging signs. Considering cement is the most used building material around the world, a concrete supercapacitor totally makes sense.
Imagine if you could scale the entire operation up, you could create a self-powered home! Or even wirelessly charge your car while it is on the road in conjunction with solar panels, which has seen some small-scale success in Detroit so far. How awesome would it be if you never had to stop at a fueling station?
We wonder what else could a concrete supercapacitor make possible.