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Originally Posted by 'lectronimo
From: Science Daily, http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/inde...-batteries.xml
"BOSTON, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Massachusetts researchers claim they are on the verge of making the first significant change in battery design since the 19th century.
. . .
Schindall, John G. Kassakian and Riccardo Signorelli are using nanotube structures to improve on an energy storage device called an ultracapacitor.
Capacitors store energy as an electrical field, making them more efficient than standard batteries, which get their energy from chemical reactions.
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I've been following ultracapacitors for a while but their discharge characteristics requires more 'glue' logic. A battery will give up its energy at a fairly constant voltage level. But an ultracapacitor (any capacitor) has a fairly rapid drop in voltage as it gives up its energy. It will take a fairly sophisticated switching network to optimize ultracapactor performance as a storage device. Not impossible but a non-trivial task.
Still, a combined, multiple ultra capacitor network combined with Li cells would be a match made in heaven. The high charge/discharge rates of ultracapacitors would mitigate the lower C rates of Li yet let us use the high energy densities of Li chemistry.
My 03 Prius has a bank of 48 NiMH battery packs. I would love to replace them with 'smart' modules combining ultracapacitors and Li cells. It would not be enough to run EV only but it would expand the duration of stealth modes.
Bob Wilson