Researchers at Penn State and two universities in China have found that a new kind of supercapacitor, based on manganese oxide with cobalt manganese oxide as a positive electrode and a form of graphene oxide as a negative electrode, could combine the storage capacity of batteries with the high power and fast charging of other supercapacitors.
The group started with simulations to see how manganese oxide’s properties change when coupled with other materials. When they coupled it to a semiconductor, they found it made a conductive interface with a low resistance to electron and ion transport. This will be important because otherwise the material would be slow to charge.
The group has compared their supercapacitor to others and found that theirs has much higher energy density and power. They believe that by scaling up the lateral dimensions and thickness, their material has the potential to be used in electric vehicles. So far, they have not tried to scale it up. Instead, their next step will be to tune the interface where the semiconducting and conducting layers meet for even better performance. They want to add the supercapacitor to already developed flexible, wearable electronics and sensors as an energy supply for those devices or directly as self-powered sensors.