Graduate Student Andrew Westover and Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Cary Pint from Vanderbilt University have created small, grey wafers that support the concept of using different products to store electricity.
The shift from plugs and external power sources has motivated researchers to look into using other products to store power, according to The Times of India. Examples include using a laptop's casing as a battery, storing an electric car's energy in its chassis, or the dry wall in a house storing electricity that runs its lights and appliances.
"These devices demonstrate - for the first time as far as we can tell - that it is possible to create materials that can store and discharge significant amounts of electricity while they are subject to realistic static loads and dynamic forces, such as vibrations or impacts," Pint said.
"All of a sudden, the ability to design technologies at the basis of health, entertainment, travel and social communication will not be limited by plugs and external power sources."
Pint and Westover's supercapacitor stores electricity by bringing electrically charged ions on the surface of a porous material. This process is different from the way batteries house energy - by storing it in chemical reactions, IBNLive reported.
The new method allows supercaps to charge and discharge in minutes, rather than hours. Unlike batteries, which operate for thousands of cycles, the supercaps are able to work in millions of cycles.
Researchers said the new supercapacitor can store and release electrical charges while experiencing pressures up to 44 psi (pounds per square inch) and vibrational accelerations more than 80 g. They added that the device can work under such pressure and stress without any problems, The Times of India reported.
Another benefit is that the mechanics of the device don't interfere with its ability to store power.
"In an unpackaged, structurally integrated state our supercapacitor can store more energy and operate at higher voltages than a packaged, off-the-shelf commercial capacitator, even under intense dynamic and static forces," Pint said.
