- #1
Physt
- 49
- 1
I've got a bastard of a problem - I created a new form of super capacitor several months back with energy densities about 360x those of the best super capacitors on the market today (about 2.5x better than the best Li-Ion batteries) - and want to set up a production line.
Rolling the capacitors involve taking about 6 powders with different densities and hydroscopic properties, mixing them together in the correct order (the wrong order or allowing the mixture to sit too long at ambient pressure [5 seconds or more] leads to disassociation of the powders as they are loosely coupled to one another [so I believe from experiments thus far] and in turn about the same energy density of existing super capacitors - definitely something to avoid) and adding the electrolyte (most of my experiments thus far involve various salts with water, though I might move to a molten salt in later experiments to assist in cutting down the heat while discharging/charging rapidly - possibly with a built in heating element for high frequency applications rather than just storage). Once the mixture is together it gets laid between layers of foil-mixture-paper-mixture-repeating/rolled and is stable at about 10PSI of pressure (ie: the mixture doesn't degrade over time) - this seems entirely attainable in a rolled form, and so far I'm thinking of a print-head style apparatus that mixes the powders on the fly, lays them and perhaps an attached mister that mists with electrolyte as it is being laid down or after, and is then rolled and held inside a metal sheath or tape like most electrolytic capacitors in order to maintain the pressure required. I'm not much of a mechanical engineer (the most complex mechanical type of machine I've made thus far is a high speed ball mill - and I'd say it's about 60%-75% epoxy). Any suggestions for getting started on this would be appreciated, and if you are in the Portland, Maine area of the US I'd be happy to get together to discuss it and perhaps work together.
Rolling the capacitors involve taking about 6 powders with different densities and hydroscopic properties, mixing them together in the correct order (the wrong order or allowing the mixture to sit too long at ambient pressure [5 seconds or more] leads to disassociation of the powders as they are loosely coupled to one another [so I believe from experiments thus far] and in turn about the same energy density of existing super capacitors - definitely something to avoid) and adding the electrolyte (most of my experiments thus far involve various salts with water, though I might move to a molten salt in later experiments to assist in cutting down the heat while discharging/charging rapidly - possibly with a built in heating element for high frequency applications rather than just storage). Once the mixture is together it gets laid between layers of foil-mixture-paper-mixture-repeating/rolled and is stable at about 10PSI of pressure (ie: the mixture doesn't degrade over time) - this seems entirely attainable in a rolled form, and so far I'm thinking of a print-head style apparatus that mixes the powders on the fly, lays them and perhaps an attached mister that mists with electrolyte as it is being laid down or after, and is then rolled and held inside a metal sheath or tape like most electrolytic capacitors in order to maintain the pressure required. I'm not much of a mechanical engineer (the most complex mechanical type of machine I've made thus far is a high speed ball mill - and I'd say it's about 60%-75% epoxy). Any suggestions for getting started on this would be appreciated, and if you are in the Portland, Maine area of the US I'd be happy to get together to discuss it and perhaps work together.