Prototyping Energy Storage Components for Hybrid Power Source

摘要

This document reports the results of exploratory studies of technology for building devices to store electrical energy. The studies show that both volumetric (Wh/liter) and gravimetric (Wh/kg) energy densities of these novel devices can exceed those of best lithium-ion electro-chemical batteries. The new devices also have much lower internal energy dissipation. A significant advantage of these new devices is that they can be charged and discharged at about a three orders of magnitude faster rate than electrochemical devices such as batteries and electro-chemical super capacitors. This fast rate results because these devices are electronic in nature and they do not involve any slow chemical reactions or ion transport during their operations. This fast rate also means that the new devices have proportionally higher power density. In addition, these devices are expected to have much longer life time and to be less influenced by ambient temperatures. Fabrication of the new device is inexpensive and does not involve any toxic materials. The operation of the new device is safe and cannot result in explosive damaging as may occur with lithium-ion batteries.