I-Corps: Hybrid Protein Graphene Electrodes for Supercapacitors

我们的现代技术社会需要能够有效储存和输送能量的设备，其应用包括：i)移动电子设备；ii)通过汽车、电动自行车、“悬浮板”和其他车辆进行电力运输；iii)植入生物医学传感器设备；以及（iv）用于替代能源（如风车和光伏）的电能存储，因为“风不会？我总是吹，太阳却不吹。我总是闪闪发光。”目前的商业存储以电池为主，尤其是锂离子电池，无处不在的手机，笔记本电脑，特斯拉电动汽车等，因为它们具有最高的重量能量密度。然而，电池可能会发热（不适合用于医疗植入物），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“悬浮滑板”的一系列火灾）。值得研究的是其他选择，比如超级电容器，它通过非化学、无毒的方式储存能量，可以比电池更快地传递电能，而且不会发热或有火灾危险。虽然超级电容器长期以来一直占据着作为二次电源或快速充电应用的利基市场，但它们不像锂离子电池那样每单位质量存储那么多能量，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。这个I-Corps团队提出了一种新方法，将革命性的材料石墨烯与设计的蛋白质结合起来，提供更便宜、高能量密度的超级电容器电极，因此可能会对能源存储市场产生颠覆性影响。在短期内，这个I-Corps团队希望生产低成本、环保的小型超级电容器，这种电容器可能用于医疗设备（因为它们不会加热，而且是无害的）、利基运输应用（比如电动自行车和汽车电池的替代品），以及潜在的新设备，比如无毒、无火焰的可生物降解的照明灯替代品。从长远来看，它们可以帮助提供可靠且快速排放的电网存储，与可再生能源的间歇性发电并举，从而保持电力的稳定和无中断。在I-Corps项目期间，该团队打算采访一般储能技术、电网储能（来自储能供应商和储能方）、家庭储能、医疗设备储能以及各种运输环境（特别是电动自行车和汽车）中的储能利益相关者。该团队不打算在消费电子市场上开发储能技术，因为该技术已经足够成熟。

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.