The explosive growth of mobile electronic devices, electric cars, drones and other technologies has driven the demand for new lightweight materials that can power such devices. According to foreign media reports, researchers at the University of Houston and Texas A&M University have used structured supercapacitor electrodes made of reduced graphene oxide and aramid nanofibers. Stronger and more flexible than traditional carbon-based electrodes.
The University of Houston research team also proved that, compared with the traditional modeling method (that is, the porous medium model), the nanostructure modeling based on the material can more accurately understand the ion diffusion in the composite electrode and its related characteristics.
The researchers said that more accurate modeling methods can help researchers find more efficient new nanostructured materials, and that such materials can achieve longer battery life and provide higher energy at lighter weight.
Researchers know that the materials tested, namely reduced graphene oxide and aramid nanofibers (or rGO/ANF) are a good candidate because of their strong electrochemical and mechanical properties. Supercapacitor electrodes are usually made of porous carbon-based materials to achieve efficient electrode performance. The reduced graphene oxide is mainly made of carbon, and aramid nanofibers provide mechanical strength, increase the versatility of the electrode, and make it useful for military and other applications. The research also happened to be funded by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
The current paper reflects the researchers' interest in improving modeling to invent new energy materials. The researchers said: "What we want to convey is that the traditional model, that is, the model based on porous media, may not be accurate enough when designing such new nanostructured materials and exploring such materials for electrodes or other energy storage devices. The reason is that the porous media model generally assumes that the pore size inside the material is uniform, rather than measuring the different dimensions and geometric characteristics of the material."