New Breakthrough in Energy Storage – MIT Engineers Create Supercapacitor out of Ancient Materials
Constructed from cement, carbon black, and water, the device holds the potential to offer affordable and scalable energy storage for renewable energy sources. Two of humanity's most ubiquitous historical materials, cement and carbon black (which resembles very fine charcoal), may form the basis for
The water naturally forms a branching network of openings within the structure as it reacts with cement, and the carbon migrates into these spaces to make wire-like structures within the hardened cement.
fractal-like structure, with larger branches sprouting smaller branches, and those sprouting even smaller branchlets
existing batteries are too expensive and mostly rely on materials such as lithium, whose supply is limited,
nanocarbon-black-doped concrete
upercapacitors can be charged and discharged much more rapidly than batteries
Since the concrete would retain its strength, a house with a foundation made of this material could store a day’s worth of energy produced by solar panels or windmills
working up to a 45-cubic-meter version to demonstrate its ability to store a house-worth of power.