14 DAY TRIAL // Once again, graphene proves that it is quite possibly the farthest thing from a one-trick wonder. Apparently, it can be made into nanoscopic balls.
Graphene is a material that is incredibly light and has excellent electrical conductivity. Between that and its hexagonal, layered structure, it can basically be used in anything, from CPUs to storage devices, to super cables and things that would make science fiction less fiction and more science.
This is the latest example: 3D graphene nanoballs invented by researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea.
The nanoballs can be used to make something that transcends supercapacitors, according to the team.
Instead of making sheets of graphene and carefully winding them into a compact supercapacitor, they “grew” the “mesoporous graphene balls.” This allows for more complex 3D graphene structures.
Extremetech has the full story. All we mortals need to know is that, if the process proves scalable, it could make supercapacitors viable for cell phones (to charge in a few minutes) and even larger things.