{"81761":{"#nid":"81761","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Supercapacitors: Researchers Develop Manufacturing Technology to Produce Electrical Devices from Carbon Nanotubes","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFirst discovered in 1991, carbon nanotubes have remained largely a laboratory curiosity. Now the GTRI researchers are out to change that by producing carbon nanotube-based devices for commercial applications.  \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ECarbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a hexagonal network of carbon atoms rolled to form a seamless cylinder - a sort of  \u0022chicken wire\u0022 lattice of graphite. \u0022This material has tremendous electrical, thermal and structural properties, however, few products utilizing CNTs have hit the commercial market,\u0022 says Jud Ready, a research engineer in Georgia Tech Research Institute\u0027s (GTRI) Electro-Optics, Environment and Materials Laboratory.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EReady is developing a CNT-based electrochemical double-layer capacitor, a project sponsored by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. Such supercapacitors would provide more power, increased energy density (more charge per gram of weight) and longer life than traditional batteries and capacitors that store electrical energy. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EReady\u0027s supercapacitors are made of two CNT-based active electrodes immersed in an electrolyte and separated by an ion-permeable membrane that prevents electron transfer. \u0022CNTs are ideal to use as the active electrode material because their nanoscale dimensions provide more surface area for storing charge,\u0022 Ready says. That extra surface area exponentially increases capacitance - the amount of power that can be stored.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EReady began work on the project last, aided by Stephan Turano, a materials science graduate student at Georgia Tech, and Charlie Higgins, a computer engineering major from Georgia State University. The team has already produced dozens of CNT supercapacitors, which have been used for electrical tests.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFeedback from those tests helps improve the manufacturing process. For example, the researchers have learned that when pressure is applied to electrodes during testing, the supercapacitor performs better. With that in mind, Ready is trying to incorporate a clamping or bolting between the two electrode plates during production to increase pressure. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe next step is reliability testing to see how the CNT supercapacitors hold up under different environments, which is especially important for space-based applications. The devices are placed in a chamber that exposes them to extreme temperature and humidity, accelerating the aging process. \u0022We can simulate 20 years of life in about 1,000 hours instead of having them sit around for 20 years,\u0022 Ready says.\n\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are producing and testing a new type of electrical device based on carbon nanotubes.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2004-04-13 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:03:38","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2004-04-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2004-04-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/gtresearchnews.gatech.edu\/newsrelease\/nanocapacitors.htm","title":"Manufacturing challenges"}],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003E \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=\u0022\u003EContact  \u003C\/a\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}