Gel-soaked conductive ‘fabric’ has potential for energy storage

As electric power becomes more important for everything from ubiquitous computing to transport, researchers are increasingly looking for ways to avoid some of the drawbacks of current electricity storage devices. Whether they are batteries, which release a steady stream of electric current, or supercapacitors, which release a sharper burst of charge, storage devices depend on conductive electrolyte fluids to carry charge between their electrodes. Susceptible to leakage and often flammable, these fluids have been behind many of the reported problems with batteries in recent years, including fires on board aircraft and exploding tablet computers (the later being caused by short-circuiting inside miniaturised batteries).

A team at Drexel University in Pennsylvania is now claiming to have made progress towards solving this problem, by constructing an electrode material resembling a porous mat of conductive carbon nanofibres that is saturated with a viscous ion-rich gel electrolyte. Not only is this combination free of flammable solvents, but it is also claimed to be more durable and lighter than comparable devices currently in use, and to have better energy storage characteristics and charge-discharge lifespan.