- #1
taylaron
Gold Member
- 397
- 1
super battery --> super capactor
Hey, we all know battery technology is down in the dumps right now; and is keeping electric cars off the road.
I've done some research on super capacitors but all the ones I've seen are based on a collection of several dozens of smaller capacitors.
I've been thinking about the whole concept behind a capacitor which to my understanding is to store a charge on the surface of a material which is next to a parallel object where it can discharge when it has reached its peak charge upon the adjacent plate.
Surface area, right! More surface area, more charge right? Well how do you get maximum surface area?
if you look way into a cell in your body you'll find mitochondrion's which are objects with a massive amount of walls folding in on itself in order to create maximum surface area to generate maximum ribosomes. I think the following idea is similar:
I do admit that there are a number of stumbling block to my plan but it its this:
this super capacitor consists instead of metal which is usually the substance to hold the charge on; but I propose growing an inconceivable amount of carbon nanotubes, where you would chop them up into as many pieces as possible (as to further increase surface area from the ends) and store a charge upon the surface of these tubes. As a collection, the combined charge should be immensely more than that of today’s super capacitors; right?.
I find this process similar to the mitochondrion. Carbon nanotubes are very small and what is the better choice to store a charge on than a massive amount of something very small in size; which has lots of surface area for its size. You would have a chamber of x size where it would be compacted with as many carbon nanotubes as possible. this would form the inside of a cylinder shaped object where all the surrounding walls inside the chamber (outside of the clump of nanotubes) would be an insulator of some sort then another conductive material that has no charge upon it.
This is the same concept behind a regular capacitor right? You’re storing charge on the surface of small nanotubes inside a container with 2 walls; 1 is an insulator and 2, the metal plate.
There is a way to manufacture a capacitor where it can discharge itself at whatever rate a charge is being drawn from it (like a battery but with no flow limit) or can you do this with some capacitors today?
There is great problem in the growth of such a huge amount of carbon nanotubes efficiently; which I’ve find has never been successfully done at this scale (according to my research). any ideas on how to solve this?
I need some input from some electrical engineers as well as physicists as to see if this would work and or how it can be perfected.
-just trying to solve the battery crisis.
-I would appreciate it if you could give some help that a high school student would understand. Thanks. I appreciate your help.
Hey, we all know battery technology is down in the dumps right now; and is keeping electric cars off the road.
I've done some research on super capacitors but all the ones I've seen are based on a collection of several dozens of smaller capacitors.
I've been thinking about the whole concept behind a capacitor which to my understanding is to store a charge on the surface of a material which is next to a parallel object where it can discharge when it has reached its peak charge upon the adjacent plate.
Surface area, right! More surface area, more charge right? Well how do you get maximum surface area?
if you look way into a cell in your body you'll find mitochondrion's which are objects with a massive amount of walls folding in on itself in order to create maximum surface area to generate maximum ribosomes. I think the following idea is similar:
I do admit that there are a number of stumbling block to my plan but it its this:
this super capacitor consists instead of metal which is usually the substance to hold the charge on; but I propose growing an inconceivable amount of carbon nanotubes, where you would chop them up into as many pieces as possible (as to further increase surface area from the ends) and store a charge upon the surface of these tubes. As a collection, the combined charge should be immensely more than that of today’s super capacitors; right?.
I find this process similar to the mitochondrion. Carbon nanotubes are very small and what is the better choice to store a charge on than a massive amount of something very small in size; which has lots of surface area for its size. You would have a chamber of x size where it would be compacted with as many carbon nanotubes as possible. this would form the inside of a cylinder shaped object where all the surrounding walls inside the chamber (outside of the clump of nanotubes) would be an insulator of some sort then another conductive material that has no charge upon it.
This is the same concept behind a regular capacitor right? You’re storing charge on the surface of small nanotubes inside a container with 2 walls; 1 is an insulator and 2, the metal plate.
There is a way to manufacture a capacitor where it can discharge itself at whatever rate a charge is being drawn from it (like a battery but with no flow limit) or can you do this with some capacitors today?
There is great problem in the growth of such a huge amount of carbon nanotubes efficiently; which I’ve find has never been successfully done at this scale (according to my research). any ideas on how to solve this?
I need some input from some electrical engineers as well as physicists as to see if this would work and or how it can be perfected.
-just trying to solve the battery crisis.
-I would appreciate it if you could give some help that a high school student would understand. Thanks. I appreciate your help.