There is a lot of time and money going into battery research these days, as well as supercapacitors, in an effort to increase electric vehicle range and charging efficiency. But researchers from the National University of Singapore have developed an energy storage membrane that is way cheaper, and a lot more effective than advanced batteries. Insane In The (Energy) Membrane
The researchers, led by Dr. Xie Xian, have developed a polystyrene-based polymer membrane made from organic waste materials. When placed between two graphite plates and charged, the membrane can store a charge at 0.2 farads per centimeter, which is way, way more than the current upper limit of capacitors of 1 microfarad (there are 1,000,000 microfarads in a single farad.)
Even more importantly, this membrane reduces the costs of energy storage from about $7 per farad to just $0.62 per farad. That’s 90% cheaper, which would be a huge development for EV’s. And being that the membrane is supposedly made from organic waste, and there is no mention of exotic metals, we could eliminate a lot of the supply chain issues that come with electric vehicles.
Almost sounds too good to be true, but this is another potentially game-changing development in the electric vehicle world. Will batteries one day be replaced by electricity-storing membranes? It’d make for some interesting garage talk.
“Yeah Joe, my membrane is leaking electrons again…”
Source: NUS NewsHub