Badmovies.org Forum

(More 'cool' than weird, but I did not know where it might fit better   :question:)

Battery Viral Video: Legitimate or Too Good to Be True?

http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/science/super-fast-biodegradable-batteries-made-of-carbon.html

Graphene, a very simple carbon polymer, can be used as the basic component of a "supercapacitor" -- an electrical power storage device that charges far more rapidly than chemical batteries. Unlike other supercapacitors, though, graphene's structure also offers a high "energy density," -- it can hold a lot of electrons, meaning that it could conceivably rival or outperform batteries in the amount of charge it can hold. Kaner Lab researcher Maher El-Kady found a way to create sheets of graphene a single carbon atom thick by covering a plastic surface with graphite oxide solution and bombarding it with precisely controlled laser light.

English translation: He painted a DVD with a liquid carbon solution and stuck it into a standard-issue DVD burner.

The result: Absurdly cheap graphene sheets one atom thick, which held a surprising amount of charge without further modification.


More Good News About The 'Scientific Accident That May Change The World'

http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/science/more-good-news-on-those-carbon-supercapacitors.html

...researchers at Ric Kamen's lab at UCLA had found a way to make a non-toxic, highly efficient energy storage medium out of pure carbon using absurdly simple technology. Today, we can report that the same team may well have found a way to make that process scale up to mass-production levels

This week's press release from UCLA offers other intriguing possibilities:

The new micro-supercapacitors are also highly bendable and twistable, making them potentially useful as energy-storage devices in flexible electronics like roll-up displays and TVs, e-paper, and even wearable electronics. The researchers showed the utility of their new laser-scribed graphene micro-supercapacitor in an all-solid form, which would enable any new device incorporating them to be more easily shaped and flexible. The micro-supercapacitors can also be fabricated directly on a chip using the same technique, making them highly useful for integration into micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) or complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors (CMOS). As they can be directly integrated on-chip, these micro-supercapacitors may help to better extract energy from solar, mechanical and thermal sources and thus make more efficient self-powered systems. They could also be fabricated on the backside of solar cells in both portable devices and rooftop installations to store power generated during the day for use after sundown, helping to provide electricity around the clock when connection to the grid is not possible.

This sounds really cool and useful. I hope it's legit. That would open the door for many improvements in product design and efficiency. Good find, Newt!

Carbon based?  So Soylent Green isn't the only thing we're good for I guess  :teddyr:

The Batteries...they're...people.  Tell them, tell them they're people.