Berkeley and Masdar Institute achieve breakthrough supercapacitor capacitance Using ALD RuO2

As reported by The National (UAE): Dr. Firas Sammoura, an assistant professor in microsystems engineering at the Masdar Institute an co-workers and Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley in the US, have achieved a breakthrough in improving supercapacitor capacitance.

 

"We did this by utilising ruthenium oxide RuO2 – a pseudo-capacitive chemical compound that is able to quickly switch between its oxide and hydroxide states and can hold a large charge – and atomic layer deposition (ALD). ALD is an advanced method of coating a material by depositing it in thin films, one atomic layer at a time, allowing for the utmost control and uniformity of the coating. In our supercapacitor, the RuO2 layering takes place on carbon nanotubes that form the surface of the plate where the ions gather. The carbon nanotubes are spread on the plate like a shag-pile carpet, with many miniscule filaments of carbon greatly increasing its surface area. To achieve the desired capacitance of that carbon-nanotube plate, we then subject it to ALD of RuO2. This evenly coats each of the tiny nanotubes in a perfect layer of RuO2 – just enough to provide the necessary enhanced pseudo-capacitance, while not wasting expensive RuO2. The result is striking – a supercapacitor that can hold 50 times as much charge as the traditional technology. And it can provide that energy nearly without diminishing. We tested 10,000 cycles, with no loss of power or energy."

 

Fully story can be found here.