Flexible supercapacitors could endure 30,000 cycles

Supercapacitors are being explored as a possible alternative to the lithium-ion batteries that power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles (EVs). Lithium batteries can require a long time to charge, tend to start degrading quickly, and often fail before reaching 1,500 cycles. Supercapacitors can be charged quickly, but one that held as much energy as a lithium-ion battery would need to be extremely large.

To address the issue, engineers are now looking to nanomaterials. The research, described in the journal ACS Nano, saw the UCF team applying newly discovered two-dimensional materials just a few atoms thick to supercapacitors. They used 2D transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) integrated with an array of one-dimensional nanowires.

According to the paper’s abstract, these hybrid supercapacitors outperform previously developed stand-alone 2D TMD-based supercapacitors, with their structural robustness delivering more than 30,000 charge-discharge cycles with no drop in performance. Previous researchers have attempted similar techniques using graphene and other 2D materials, but success has been limited.