With the advent of technological advances in searching new and efficient sources of energy, Graphene has been touted to be the next big thing in the areas of energy storage and conversion. Being 200 times more stronger than steel and having current density million times greater than copper (at room temperature), or its intrinsic mobility is a hundred times greater than that of Silicon, or its specific area being 2630 (m2/g), all these properties justify why graphene holds so much promise in the future.
INTRODUCTION
Researchers all over the world have been looking for novel energy storage and conversion systems which are low cost and efficient as well as eco friendly. Graphene fulfils all these requirements and is also abundant in nature since its a carbon material. Even for biomedical applications graphene can provide many breakthroughs, it can go inside a living organism without damaging the tissues since its made of carbon itself. For their work on graphene scientists from the university of Manchester were even awarded the Nobel prize in . Energy harvesting from graphene involves its applications in supercapacitors and fuel cells. Researchers have recently shown that graphene can be used on the electrodes of fuel cells with a higher efficiency.
Figure 10 The formation process of graphene _Co(OH)2 nano-composites: (a)interactionsbetweenGOandCo2+ and (b) depositionofCo2+ and deoxygenation of GO at the same time. Copyright (2010) American Chemical Society.
Supercapacitors using graphene:
Electrochemical capacitors have the advantage of charging and discharging in a few seconds. Although their energy density (about 5–10 W h/kg) is lower than in batteries or fuel cells, higher power density (10 kW/kg) can be reached in a short time [74]. The most attractive advantage of ECs is a high power capability with the fast charge/discharge rate.
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