VOYAGES OF
DISCOVERY
All Charged Up On Supercapacitor Research I
magine an electric vehicle (EV) that can be fully charged in about the same time as a car being refueled with a full tank of petrol. That would pave the way for the phasing out of the fossil-fuel-powered vehicles that we have now as the long downtime for battery recharging is one of the main issues preventing the advancement of EVs. As the world moves towards renewable energy, the methods of storing electrical energy become a muchresearched area as scientists search for better ways to power up EVs and other environmentally-friendly technologies. Although the lithium-ion battery is currently the backbone of electrical energy storage, supercapacitors has long been touted as its likely successor due to the latter’s large power density, excellent cyclability and fast charging time. The importance of research
38
in supercapacitors and their components had driven Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) School of Ocean Engineering senior lecturer Dr. Nurul Hayati Idris to focus her research on graphene, a potential supercapacitor material that could secure its place as the holy grail of electrical energy storage. “Graphene became a hot topic in the circle of supercapacitor researchers around the world after it was discovered by two scientists in the United Kingdom in 2007. Graphene rose to greater prominence after the two scientists who discovered it were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010,” she said. She said graphene is derived from graphite, which has been the preferred material for supercapacitors. “Graphite, which is actually formed by graphene layers stacked together by a weak Van Der Waal bond is a good supercapacitor material but it still has
