Graphene Batteries Are Here!
There’s a better material now for batteries than lithium ion, and that material is regarded to be one of the strongest material on Earth.
For quite some time, researchers have been immersing themselves in their laboratories to find alternatives for a material in supercapacitors, but such always end in limited storage capacity. Until a researcher named Han Lin from Swinburne University in Australia took to graphene and check whether it is a viable material for a battery. He was successful.
Graphene Batteries Are Here (Image Source: Fresh Science)
The kind of battery Lin created charges up superfast and can be used over and over again without losing efficiency. It also addresses many setbacks of traditional lithium ion batteries. The additional sheets of graphene enabled the battery to have better charging time and lifespan with lesser environmental impact.
Graphene Batteries Are Here (Video source: The University of Manchester – The home of graphene)
The magic lies in the honeycomb structure of graphene. The material is essentially strong and flexible, with large surface area for energy storage. Lin tapped a 3D printer to produce the graphene sheets.
Perhaps the greatest advantage of this battery with graphene is its faster charging time, spanning only seconds in comparison to the minutes or hours for a lithium-based battery. This could be used to replace batteries in our smartphones and electric cars later.
