I think this uses lasers

If this is legitimate, because I can’t seem to find the original video, this is really cool. It seems to be a lasered material that can act as a really good capacitor , while replacing batteries. Anyone have any more insight or details on this?

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I tend to @volivaa for the serious science wizardry. Insight?

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http://news.rice.edu/2015/12/03/scientists-see-the-light-on-microsupercapacitors/

Its a laser-induced graphene (LIG). That is awesome, they produce it just by lasering polyimide. Hmm, I’ll actually have to buy the article to find out more. Not sure what power levels are needed, but you might be able to make the LIG with the glowforge. Doping it to make the positive and negative electrodes might be more difficult.

I’m very curious to see @volivaa take on this as well!

Edit: Looks like it might be a fiber laser. Not sure if that is necessary.

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Polyimide is kapton? Cuz I’ve got plenty of that lying around.

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So… Glowforge inspired battery revolution industial startup? Dibs on majority stock shares!

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In his biography Elon Musk says he has been thinking about capacitors for years because of energy density and charge time.

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Yea, Kapton is a brand name for it.

Energy density is the lynch pin. So many cool things will come to life if we can just cram enough juice into a tiny space

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Yeah. Every week I read about another research breakthrough that’s going to give us 3-10x current lithium batteries, or small fuel cells, or flow batteries that you just refill with the right liquid…

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I’d like to say that’ll be enough for the iron man suit I want to build but I think I need a lot more than 10x for that. Sigh. Maybe someday?

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I’ve seen so many “revolutionary” developments in batteries and “super” capacitors that it is sort of a cottage industry right now. Everybody’s is looking for funding and white knights. Being able to make laser induced grapheme on polyimide is cool, but not that revolutionary. These are just baby steps…so much research into trying to get more power into a tiny space. The holy grail of batteries is the lithium-air battery…6-10x more energy storage of current lithium-ion (or phosphate, or any other chemistry). Practical application is always 10 years away… I’ve been studying energy storage systems for 25 years…fun but, take every new announcement with a grain of salt (or more). - Rich

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I am flattered by all the positive press that I’m receiving, but I’m just a creative person with a skill set geared toward material science and technology. I am very excited by these new fabrication techniques. Soon, something like the Glowforge Nano, that I have proposed earlier, will allow creative people everywhere to build their own sophisticated sensors, circuits, devices, etc in the leisure of their homes. A buddy tells me that graphene based supercapacitors are slated to replace lithium based batteries in cell phones in the 2-3 year time frame, initially with half the capacity of the existing battery, but able to be fully recharged in 90 seconds.

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See this is why we pull you in on these :wink: with that kind of discharge/recharge ration you could do some cool things with a lot of other tech. Solar powered recharge panels in the road that just give you a little power bump as you drive over them giving nearly infinite range? Military micro UAVs that can buzz around for ten minutes collecting intel and then zip back to sip some power before they’re off again? I think I need to work on a wireless robot power bed now I wonder how bad that would interfere with transmitting to the bot. Hmmm

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There are a plethora of new sensors in the works for phones. I personally am exploring new methods for isolating graphene monolayers from graphite. I made 200g of a brilliant blue liquid called o-quinodimethane. It is supposedly has never been isolated and is worth $60,000 per gram, although I can’t find anyone that wants it. It reacts with itself and air in 24 hours, even at dry ice temperatures, to form a ladder polymer similar to graphene. I am hoping my experience with dissolving it will be applicable to extracting graphene from graphite.

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Imagine what graphene based supercapacitors will do for electric vehicles. Pull up to a charging station and charge up while having a burger.

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Charging-drones at stoplights.

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Although capacitors (super or not) have energy storage capacity (or will have) similar or exceeding batteries, they don’t have the natural ability to power electric vehicles like batteries do. Batteries change voltage only a little as they discharge, whereas capacitors reduce voltage as their energy storage level goes down. The capacitors will need special electronics to compensate for this or hybrid battery/capacitor systems to compensate. - Rich

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For those that are interested, they used a Universal X-660 CO2 laser cutter with Kapton polyimide film at 4.8 W, room temp, ambient air pressure.

So… This seems doable with a Glowforge!

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