Graphene foam gives batteries capacitor-like abilities

Ars Technica : A new battery design by Na Li and Zongping Chen of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenyang and their colleagues uses graphene foam to achieve capacitor-like discharge times. The foam is created by depositing graphene onto a metal foam structure and then removing the metal. To create an electrode, Li and Chen then deposited a lithium-titanium compound, Li ₄Ti ₅O ₁₂, on the foam. Their tests showed that the electrode could discharge in just 18 s at 80% efficiency and was stable over 500 charge/discharge cycles. By combining the material with a cathode made of LiFePO ₄ on graphene foam, they created a battery that charged in less than 15 minutes and had an energy density on par with standard lithium batteries. Because of the nature of graphene, the batteries are also flexible. However, the graphene foam is currently expensive and energy intensive to create. Unless it can be produced more cheaply, the new batteries will probably never become commercialized.