Deep-Frying Graphene Microspheres For Energy Storage 49
ckwu writes Materials scientists have constructed round, pom-pom-like graphene microparticles by spraying graphene oxide droplets into a hot solvent—a process akin to deep-frying. The technique could provide a simple, versatile means to make electrode materials for batteries and supercapacitors, possibly leading to devices with improved energy and power densities, the researchers say. The microparticles contain graphene nanosheets radiating out from their centers, which increases the exposed surface area of the graphene and creates open nanochannels that can enhance charge transfer. Electrodes made with the graphene microspheres had higher capacitance than those made with unassembled graphene sheets, demonstrating that the 3-D structure of the particles improved performance.
Mmmm.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mmmm.. (Score:5, Funny)
Also proof that everything deep fried helps with energy storage.
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Everything except dentics.
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Deep frying is the only way you can eat a dentic [wikia.com], so it does make it better.
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Re:Mmmm.. (Score:4, Funny)
Should have been obvious (Score:3)
I mean, look at the energy density of an Arancini.
Science, not a product (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet to see a graphene product in the wild.
Until then, this is interesting science research and nothing more.
Has been the same for, what, 11 years now?
The Wiki says: "While as of 2014, graphene is not used in commercial applications, many have been proposed and/or are under development, in areas including electronics, biological engineering, filtration, lightweight/strong composite materials, photovoltaics and energy storage.... adhesive, elastomer, oil and aqueous and non-aqueous solutions... advanced composites, paints and coatings, lubricants, oils and functional fluids, capacitors and batteries, thermal management applications, display materials and packaging, inks and 3D-printersâ(TM) materials, and barriers and films."
Stop making promises. Start making a single, viable product from it. At the moment, I have more products dependent on quantum interactions and radiation than I do on a substance we're told can be produced by pulling a strip of sellotape off a block of graphite.
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Has been the same for, what, 11 years now?
[...]
At the moment, I have more products dependent on quantum interactions and radiation
And, as we all know, quantum physics were developed way later than... 2004.
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Quantum physics was entirely theoretical and not tied to any particular material, nor did it ever claim to. Like relativity, it took nearly a hundred years to PROVE that it was anything more than an hypothesis. And - in the last decade or so - its effects have to be countered in every high-end integrated circuit in the world.
This is a discussion of a material, one we can make, one which is produced all over the world (quite easily, comparatively), which is making lots of very SPECIFIC materials-based prom
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Introducing fundamental technology takes decades of incremental improvements and theoretical discovery. If you are looking for instant gratification perha
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"this is interesting science research and nothing more."
This is not science; it is engineering.
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Could Possibly (Score:2, Funny)
Graphene seems always to be at a point where it "could" "possibly" be used for something. Has graphene actually been used for anything yet (beyond generating Slashdot articles)?
The ultrasonic nozzles in the TFA... (Score:2)
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I can't find anything on that, all I can find is some carburetor systems that use sonics to add water to the intake charge, which is also a really great idea. It would be astoundingly easy to add to an intake system, and on a diesel it sounds like a very good idea. Not so sure about gassers, I think it would take more management to do well there.
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Street car carbs were more or less done by the early 80s. All that was left was computer controlled carbs, which sucked.
At operating temperatures the gasoline is typically well vaporized by the time the mix goes into the cylinder, so it only fixed a warmup issue, when motors are typically run a little rich anyhow.
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Finally, we're perfecting the carbon battery! (Score:4, Funny)
Glad to see the potential for a new revolution in electronics. Assembling precise crystalline structures is the best way to harness properties of any material. For the most part we have been in the first generation of materials innovation, just one step removed from alchemy, where chemicals' properties are known in a general sense. Elements are combined and set into clumps of useful stuff.
The two prevalent forms of stuff-clumps used in electronics have been the cowpie, a dollop of stuff placed into container in which electrodes or plates are suspended to yield useful properties of storage or electron transfer, perhaps selectively doped [wikipedia.org] to generallly control the dance of the little electrons in their shells [youtube.com]... and the turd, an extruded mass of stuff in which its length or composition determines the property, and electrodes are fixed to either end.
1. harness the properties of useful stuff as cowpies and turds
2. fine-tune the diet to maximize useful properties in turds (present level of technology)
3. flocculate the turd juice into tiny turdlets (the innovation described in TA)
4. assemble lattices of turdlets via electrostatic or acoustic means (think phi and eye of dragonfly [vimeo.com])
5. bit by bit assembly, such art as has been mastered by the Steelypips,
"Not far from here, by a white sun, behind a green star, lived the Steelypips, illustrious, industrious, and they hadn't a care: no spats in their vats, no rules, no schools, no gloom, no evil influence of the moon, no trouble from matter or antimatter -- for they had a machine, a dream of a machine, with springs and gears and perfect in every respect. And they lived with it, and on it, and under it, and inside it, for it was all they had -- first they saved up all their atoms, then they put them all together, and if one didn't fit, why they chipped at it a bit, and everything was just fine ..."
~~Stanislaw Lem
Of course, a few of the folks here are going to go on to suggest that this process will some day become giant disposable batteries the size of skyscrapers that are built and lovingly installed like 2001: Monoliths, for the express purpose of storing a year's worth of solar and wind grid energy so that if the clouds roll over and the wind dies down, it will power our modern civilization for ten minutes. At which point I will lose my temper.
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Wow, you don't know much about ICs are made, do you?
We grow a lovely great crystal, then expensively slice it into bits, then we grow some more layers on it, and then we slice it up some more. If only we could just grow the crystal with three-dimensional circuitry embedded inside of it as it grows in the first place, and not have to cut it, imagine how much more efficient and powerful the whole process would be. Ma nature must sometimes make circuits by accident, just as she sometimes makes nuclear reactors, but we imagine having more purpose.
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Wow, you don't know much about ICs are made, do you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?f... [youtube.com]
Now read that again.
"For the most part we have been in the first generation of materials innovation, just one step removed from alchemy"
Feel silly? You should. Put down that K. Eric Drexler nonsense and wake up.
That Todd Fernandez HOPE09 talk [youtube.com] on IC manufacture is AWESOME, thanks!! Yes, I feel silly. That shit is indeed indistinguishable from magick.
But because I am incorrigible and dislike car analogies, I will merely extend my bathroom analogy.
1. harness the properties of useful stuff as cowpies and turds
2. fine-tune the diet to maximize useful properties in turds
2.5 fart on silicon wafers (Atomic Layer Deposition) and poke it onto the surface with photons to make useful patterns (present level of technology)
2.6
Fun with font rendering! (Score:2)
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Yes, I admit it.
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Memes (Score:2)
Would you like fries with that?
Would you like butter on your popcorn?
I bet they'll get a charge out of that.
In Soviet Russia graphene makes pom-poms of you
So many options... so little time... I have to go to work now.
"Do you want graphene microspheres with that?" (Score:5, Funny)
--Cruel teasing of STEM graduates' prospects from a land where liberal arts majors rule.
Homer (Score:1)
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Either shit or get off the pot, guys.
Smelly. The alternative is similarly unattractive as it may induce withdrawal. Better they just get on with graphene research instead.
"graphene oxide" (Score:1)
Isn't that, like, CO2?
Another first for Scottish science! (Score:2)
Sorry :)
Power density? (Score:2)
Is power density typically an issue?