Scientific Achievement
A team of Foundry users and staff have demonstrated that a newly discovered supercapacitor has the highest energy density of any comparable system.
Significance and Impact
The supercapacitor has been shown to have an operating voltage window three times larger than before, has the highest energy density of any other pseudocapacitor and could provide a competitive alternative to lithium batteries.
Research Details
- Titanium disulfide is light, cheap, and has many potential benefits if used in a lithium-based energy storage system, but the material degrades rapidly and has relatively low conductivity.
- It has been shown that coating nanocrystalline titanium disulfide onto vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) can form highly conductive, three-dimensional porous networks to improve electrical conductivity, increase surface area, and stabilize the electrochemical reactions.
- Working with Foundry staff, users have implemented a two-step method that combines atomic layer deposition (ALD) with a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process to make coated VACNT electrodes that have precisely defined nanostructures.
