Australian researchers have made progress on a new technology to greatly increase the capacity and efficiency of many electrical energy devices.

Professor Dan Li and colleagues from Melbourne’s Monash University have developed a graphene-based supercapacitor, which can extend the energy capacity of renewable technologies and portable electronic devices.

Scientists in teams around the world are working on new graphene-based supercapacitors, after researchers in the last few years have discovered the material’s incredible ability to store and discharge massive amounts of energy at an extremely high rate. The new work by Monash now published in the journal Science heralds a more compact design, reportedly capable of holding ten times the energy of previous supercapacitors.

The new graphene-based device has an energy density of around 60 Watt-hours per litre, comparable to lead-acid car batteries - but they will last longer than traditional batteries because supercapacitors store charge, rather than generating current through chemical reactions.

“I think supercapacitor technology is more complementary to traditional batteries, working together to improve the performance of energy storage,” says Prof Li, “in electric cars, supercapacitors will [be used to] capture and store the energy generated by braking.”

The new technique includes a relatively easy way to actually produce graphene, which is a major challenge for many working with the high-tech material. Li and colleagues used a method similar to that used in traditional paper-making to produce their graphene sheets.

“The next step will be to commercialise the technology,” says Li, “we still need a way to manufacture the graphene material in large quantities. It's not hard to produce, but it hasn't been done on large scales yet.”

The newly-published research is available here.