Cool tech if it can be scaled up

[OnlinePoker]

I can't see the video referred to in the article, but this could be a game changer for a lot of items, including electric vehicles if they can get it to work. From the article:

English translation: He painted a DVD with a liquid carbon solution and stuck it into a standard-issue DVD burner.

The result: Absurdly cheap graphene sheets one atom thick, which held a surprising amount of charge without further modification.

http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/science/more-good-news-on-those-carbon-supercapacitors.html

[msongs]

1. China will corner the market on this stuff asap :-) nt

[phantom power]

2. sweet - my first question: is a micro-super-capacitor equivalent to one capacitor?

[Duer 157099]

3. Holy solar-energy-solution Batman!

So let's be cynical and try to imagine the downsides here. I mean, aside from the obvious one where the petrochemical-industrial-complex just buries this in their underground storehouse.

What could possibly go wrong?

The new micro-supercapacitors are also highly bendable and twistable, making them potentially useful as energy-storage devices in flexible electronics like roll-up displays and TVs, e-paper, and even wearable electronics. The researchers showed the utility of their new laser-scribed graphene micro-supercapacitor in an all-solid form, which would enable any new device incorporating them to be more easily shaped and flexible. The micro-supercapacitors can also be fabricated directly on a chip using the same technique, making them highly useful for integration into micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) or complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors (CMOS). As they can be directly integrated on-chip, these micro-supercapacitors may help to better extract energy from solar, mechanical and thermal sources and thus make more efficient self-powered systems. They could also be fabricated on the backside of solar cells in both portable devices and rooftop installations to store power generated during the day for use after sundown, helping to provide electricity around the clock when connection to the grid is not possible.

[Iterate]

4. I've been looking for a way to repurpose an old burner,

so guess what I'll be doing tomorrow. Surely I can find some old cotton underwear to use as a source of carbon.

Super-capacitors have been around for decades, but have been limited by the materials used. Every time material science makes a gain, the supercapacitors have been improved. Odds are you already have one nearby if you have an electronic device that needs to store a charge to maintain memory. I have some sitting around that were scrapped out, but haven't found a good use yet.

But now I can roll my own.