New High-power Battery Tech to Power Buses
2010-08-13 Source：www.chinabuses.org
Summarize：Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a way to make carbon nanotubes that could result in a hybrid battery-capacitor, resulting in a battery storage device that could store large amounts of energy quickly and output a large amount of power as well. This combines the best of both worlds for batteries and ultracapacitors), and would be an ideal solution for among others electric buses.
www.chinabuses.org: Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a way to make carbon nanotubes that could result in a hybrid battery-capacitor, resulting in a battery storage device that could store large amounts of energy quickly and output a large amount of power as well. This combines the best of both worlds for batteries and ultracapacitors), and would be an ideal solution for among others electric buses.
Today, common storage solutions for electricity in automobiles include either lithium-ion (or nickel-metal hydride) batteries or ultra-capacitors. Li-ion and NiMH batteries can store power for the long term, but take hours to fully charge and are incapable of taking large amounts of energy quickly. Ultracapacitors, on the other hand, can take a large amount of energy very quickly and discharge it just as fast, but cannot hold an electrical charge for long.
The fundamental difference between the two technologies is that batteries are chemical while capacitors are physical energy storage mediums. By creating a sort of hybrid of the two processes using carbon nanotubes, researchers at MIT believe that they can retain the properties of both energy storage mediums. The combination includes some alternating sheets made from the nanotubes. Sheets covered with caroxylic acid are alternated with sheets using amine functional groups. This allows for both storage and fast-release (or receipt) of electricity.
This halfway-between battery would be capable for storing a lot of energy and of releasing it relatively fast, compared to current-generation batteries. MIT hopes to build prototypes to prove the concept and begin testing. The ultimate goal is to have better batteries for all classes of vehicles that require input less often from outside sources of energy to recharge.
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