Paladin4Elio
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Unlike batteries, which store energy chemically in the material of their electrodes, a capacitor stores energy physically, on the electrodes’ surfaces. One electrode has a surplus of electrons and the other a deficit. If the electrodes are then connected through an external circuit a current flows until the surplus has neutralised the deficit and both have the same electrical potential. Electrode surfaces are easy to get to, so a capacitor can be charged and discharged quickly, giving it a high power-density. But surfaces cannot hold as much energy as entire volumes, so capacitors have lower energy-densities than batteries.
Supercapacitors pack vastly larger surfaces into a given space by using porous materials to form the electrodes. This permits them to have an energy-density up to 10,000 times that of a regular capacitor. That is still only a tenth of a lithium-ion battery’s energy-density, but a supercapacitor’s power-density can be ten times that of such a battery.
More at: http://www.economist.com/news/scien...run-their?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/firstoneuptodrive
Supercapacitors pack vastly larger surfaces into a given space by using porous materials to form the electrodes. This permits them to have an energy-density up to 10,000 times that of a regular capacitor. That is still only a tenth of a lithium-ion battery’s energy-density, but a supercapacitor’s power-density can be ten times that of such a battery.
More at: http://www.economist.com/news/scien...run-their?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/firstoneuptodrive