14 DAY TRIAL // Batteries may have been slowly gaining efficiency and charge life, but they've been holding back technological development more than most other device components. Materials scientists from Korea may have a way around this problem at last, even if it's a weird one.
In theory, scientists have been mixing graphene foams and aerogels for some time, but results were too unsuitable for use in electrodes, which is the whole point of graphene research for batteries.
Bulk, irregularity and the carbon material's low density have made stymied research in this area for a considerable amount of time.
However, it appears that the approach just wasn't strange enough. Graphene was usually turned into hollow balls or wads of crumpled paper, but that didn't cut it.
The group of researchers from Korea went with something more reminiscent of a pom-pom if you can believe it. Graphene fluff balls.
How graphene pom-poms can yield good energy storage devices
The name of the study published in the journal Chemistry of Materials says it all really: Spray-Assisted Deep-Frying Process for the In Situ Spherical Assembly of Graphene for Energy-Storage Devices.
The paper was published by a team of scientists from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Yonsei University.
Graphene was allowed to self-assembly by spraying oxide of it into hot solvent, much like one would deep-fry food.
The temperature led to the formation of particles shaped like pom-poms. These particles proved very well suited for battery electrodes, supercapacitors, and generally more efficient devices. Power density could also gain a level or two if this breakthrough is applied properly.
The pom-poms gave larger exposed surface area compared to the other methods mentioned before, with open nanochannels that can enhance charge transfer.
Not only that, but the deep-frying method is more direct, simpler and easier to scale up depending on the needs of each application.
Why we need better battery design tech
The only reason devices have been gaining battery charge life over the past few years is because CPUs, GPU, memory chips and all other semiconductors have been gaining in efficiency. Batteries have been stagnant really. Some extra charge life has been gained, but they are, overall, still large, vulnerable to heat and inefficient.