I-Corps: Hybrid Protein Graphene Electrodes for Supercapacitors

I-Corps：用于超级电容器的混合蛋白石墨烯电极

• 批准号: 1620998
• 负责人: Daniel Cox
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-02-15 至 2016-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1620998&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Hybrid; Protein; Graphene; Electrodes

Our modern technical society needs devices able to store and deliver energy effectively, for applications including i) mobile electronic devices (ii) electric transport via cars, electric bikes, "hoverboards" and other vehicles (iii) implanted biomedical sensor devices, and (iv) electrical energy storage for alternative power sources such as windmills and photovoltaics, because "the wind doesn?t always blow, and the sun doesn?t always shine." Current commercial storage is dominated by batteries, especially lithium ion batteries ubiquitous in cell phones, laptops, Tesla electric vehicles, etc, because they have the highest energy density by weight. However, batteries can heat up (not desirable for medical implants), contain toxic components (as in the lead acid batteries common in electric bikes), and have safety issues (witness the string of fires in "hoverboards" recently). It is worth examining other options like supercapacitors, which store energy by nonchemical, nontoxic means, can deliver electrical energy far more rapidly than batteries, and which do not heat or represent fire danger. While supercapacitors have long occupied niche markets as secondary power sources or for rapid charging applications, they do not store as much energy per unit mass as lithium ion batteries, and conventional designs are more expensive, based dominantly on the cost and materials in the supercapacitor charging terminals (electrodes). This I-Corps team proposes a new approach that combines the revolutionary material graphene with designed proteins to provide supercapacitor electrodes that are cheaper and have high energy density and so could be disruptive for the energy storage market. In the short term, this I-Corps team hopes to produce low cost, environmentally benign small supercapacitors which can potentially be used in medical devices (since they do not heat up and are benign), niche transportation applications (such as replacement for batteries in e-bikes and cars), and potentially novel devices such as nontoxic, non-flame based biodegradable replacements for flares. In the long term, they could help supply reliable and quickly discharged electrical grid storage to go hand-in-hand with intermittent energy generation from renewables so that the transfer of electricity remains stable and disruption free. During the I-Corps program, the team intends to interview stakeholders in general energy storage technologies, grid storage (from the storage provider side and the energy storage side), home energy storage, energy storage in medical devices, and energy storage in various transportation contexts, especially e-bikes and cars. The team does not plan to go after energy storage in the consumer electronics market, where the technology is sufficiently mature.

我们的现代技术社会需要能够有效地存储和传递能量的设备，用于以下应用：i)移动电子设备(Ii)通过汽车、电动自行车、悬浮滑板和其他车辆进行的电动运输(Iii)植入生物医学传感器设备，以及(Iv)用于替代能源的电能存储，例如风车和光伏发电，因为“风不总是吹的，太阳也不总是照耀的。”目前的商业存储以电池为主，特别是手机、笔记本电脑、特斯拉电动汽车等中普遍存在的锂离子电池，因为它们具有最高的重量能量密度。然而，电池可能过热(对于医疗植入物来说并不可取)，含有有毒成分(如电动自行车中常见的铅酸电池)，并且存在安全问题(看看最近发生的一连串“悬浮滑板”火灾)。其他选择值得研究，比如超级电容器，它以非化学、无毒的方式储存能量，输送电能的速度比电池快得多，而且不会发热，也不会有火灾危险。虽然超级电容器长期以来一直作为二次电源或快速充电应用占据利基市场，但它们的单位质量储存的能量不如锂离子电池，而且传统设计更昂贵，主要是基于超级电容器充电终端(电极)的成本和材料。I-Corps团队提出了一种新方法，将革命性材料石墨烯与设计的蛋白质相结合，提供更便宜、能量密度更高的超级电容器电极，因此可能会对能量存储市场产生颠覆性影响。在短期内，i-Corps团队希望生产低成本、环保的小型超级电容器，这些电容器可能被用于医疗设备(因为它们不会发热并且是良性的)、利基交通应用(例如更换电动自行车和汽车中的电池)，以及潜在的新设备，如无毒、无火焰的可生物降解的照明弹替代品。从长远来看，它们可以帮助提供可靠且快速放电的电网存储，与可再生能源的间歇性发电齐头并进，从而使电力传输保持稳定和不受干扰。在i-Corps计划期间，该团队打算采访一般能源存储技术、电网存储(从存储提供商方面和能源存储方面)、家庭能源储存、医疗设备中的能源储存以及各种交通环境中的能源储存方面的利益相关者，特别是电动自行车和汽车。该团队不打算在技术足够成熟的消费电子市场追逐储能。