Grunchy
Seems to make sense. As long as it doesn't short out and explode if it gets perforated, perhaps by a nail. Imagine you replace all your wallboard in the house with supercapacitor board, but one day you forget and go to nail up a picture, and your house burns down! Boy that would be embarrassing, eh?
Hans Walrecht
Capacitors were already used in the two Voyager Spacecraft. I worked with (high voltage) capacitors myself, and when all the power is released at once, the spark is enormous. I even managed to weld a piece of copper on a piece of iron. So, I figure, if such a capacitor is punched or whatever, it can cause an explosion, destroying the telephone or electric car.
Mel Tisdale
While all the potential applications mentioned in the article are clearly going to be transformative, for me there is one application that stands head and shoulders above the rest: Having no battery in the way, 'phone manufacturers will be able to put the camera lens in the centre of their device. Who knows, I might even be able to take a photo without including a finger or two in it.
Slowburn
That stuff will make great shell filler, inert till charged then detonate like TNT on impact.
Martin-tu
I guess the next stage would be making the exterior of the case/ battery/ capacitor also photo-voltaic, recharging itself in daylight or at the very least somewhat extending the operating cycle.
notarichman
yes, there are lots of possibilities, pro & con. i can see there would have to be protections built in such as Tesla has in it's batteries to keep one cell from destroying all.
i wonder about airplane parts? small motors? electric power poles? roads? Imagine a road that powers cars with solar energy stored in a super capacitor!
No testing done yet on how long the capacitors last?
leafygreen
All very interesting...
Instead of simply 'withstanding' the stresses and strains the structure undergoes, why not USE them to produce energy (and/or make some photovoltaic, as @Martin-tu suggests, above)?
There have been reports on Gizmag of both flexible batteries AND, I think, charging systems. Every structure flexes somewhat in every kind of weather - think of the amount of energy available, even at initially-low efficiencies!
Len Simpson
Tesla batteries are of this ilk. In my day, automobile ignition systems used a capacitor to avoid excessive arcing & burning of the ignition points . We called them condensors
Bruce 'bd' Howard
LS - your comment has its points.
telocity
There is a couple youtube videos showing how just a few small capacitors are sufficient to start a car. The issue is of course they do not store large amounts of energy and tend to discharge slowly while not in use. One fix was to use a small 12v battery to keep charge up.
with this you could have the capacitors as part of the casing containing some lithium batteries.
Why bother you ask, why not just use the batteries?
One, capacitors give high power to starter and recharge very fast. So better for starter if there are multiple starts. Even connected devices benefit from this as you get a steady power supply. Two, the combination of the 2 will allow for much smaller battery and save a lot of weight compared to lead acid, good for motorcycles and scooters. Three, capacitors act as a buffer for the battery, protecting it from sudden discharge and surges.
So even if the battery cost more, it will work better for the system, last 10x as long and weight far less and take far less space.