SBIR Phase II: Improved Carbon Electrodes for Ultracapacitors

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的目标是为超级电容器制备改进的单片碳电极。超级电容器由于其高充放电速率，是电动汽车、高级电力系统和电池供电电子设备中作为负载均衡电源的主要候选者。在确定碳基超级电容器的功率和能量密度时，最重要的参数是电解液的表面积。这又主要是由孔隙大小分布决定的。目前单片碳的主要问题是它们的孔隙太小，电解质无法进入。TDA研究公司已经开发出具有正确孔径分布的多孔整体碳的制备方法。该工艺比以前的方法简单得多，并且使用低成本的原料和加工步骤，大大降低了生产成本。这些改进将使我们能够达到成本和性能目标，使超级电容器成为商业上可行的电源。在这个二期项目中，TDA将进一步改善材料的性能，开发大规模生产的方法，估计大规模生产的成本，并向超级电容器制造商提供这些材料的预生产数量。除了用作电动汽车的负载均衡电源外，改进的超级电容在当前市场（计算器、手表和电动剃须刀）、正在进行的通信市场（蜂窝电话和数字通信器）和高级电力市场（清洁电力/过滤器）将更具成本效益。

This objective of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to prepare improved monolithic carbor electrodes for ultracapacitors. Ultracapacitors, because of their high rate of charge and discharge, are prime candidates for use as the load-leveling power source in electric vehicles, premium power systems and battery powered electronics. The most important parameter in determining the power and energy density of a carbon-based ultracapacitor is the amount of surface area accessible to the electrolyte. This in turn is primarily determined by the pore size distribution. The major problem with current monolithic carbons is that their pores are too small for the electrolyte to enter. TDA Research, Inc. has developed methods to prepare porous monolithic carbon with the correct pore size distribution. The process is considerably simpler than previous methods and uses low-cost feedstocks and processing steps, greatly lowering the production cost. This combination of improvements will allow us to attain the cost and performance targets necessary to make ultracapacitors commercially viable power sources. In this Phase II program, TDA will further improve the properties of the materials, develop methods for mass production, estimate their cost in large scale production, and supply pre-production quantities of these material to ultracapacitor manufacturers.In addition to use as the load-leveling power source in electric vehicles, improved ultracapcitators will be more cost-effective in current markets (calculators, watches and electric razors), on-going communications markets (cellular telephones and digital communicators) and premium power markets (clean power/filters).