The aerocapacitor: An electrochemical double-layer energy-storage device

The authors have applied unique types of carbon foams developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to make an {open_quotes}aerocapacitor{close_quotes}. The aerocapacitor is a high power-density, high energy-density, electrochemical double-layer capacitor which uses carbon aerogels as electrodes. These electrodes possess very high surface area per unit volume and are electrically continuous in both the carbon and electrolyte phase on a 10 nm scale. Aerogel surface areas range from 100 to 700 m{sup 2}/cc (as measured by BET analysis), with bulk densities of 0.3 to 1.0 g/cc. This morphology permits stored energy to be released rapidly, resulting in high power densities (7.5 kW/kg). Materials parameterization has been performed, and device capacitances of several tens of Farads per gram and per cm{sup 3} of aerogel have been achieved