Korean scientists have developed a new type of power storage technology using nitrogen and graphene that could speed up growth in next-generation electric cars and smart power grids. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) team, led by engineering professor Choi Jung-wook, said the new nitrogen-doped graphene supercapacitor displayed twice the energy storage capability of conventional capacitors in laboratory tests.The newly built supercapacitor, which used graphene as its base material, has improved power storage capacity coupled with more output. It said nitrogen doping played a key role in the improvements. Doping is the introduction of impurities into a semiconductor to effect dramatic change in electrical properties.
Graphenes can conduct electrons much faster than silicon, are highly elastic and have twice the strength of diamonds. The materials, which are atom-thin carbon compounds, also possess electrical conductivity properties 100 times greater than copper. Tests conducted with the supercapacitor showed no change in its capabilities even after the device was charged and discharged 230,000 times.