Published in Chemistry World, 15 Mar 2012
Producing a highly sought wonder material can be as easy as burning a DVD. That is according to chemists in the US, who have used a standard DVD player to reduce films of graphite oxide to graphene. These graphene films can be made into high-performance, flexible capacitors fit for bendy solar cells or roll-up displays.
A lot of current research is focused on producing high-performance capacitors for energy storage. Electrochemical capacitors, otherwise known as supercapacitors, have some promising attributes – they can undergo frequent charge and discharge cycles, for instance – but in general they are still limited by low energy and power densities. Higher energy densities would enable devices to run longer, while higher power densities would enable them to run faster. […]
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