Ultra-thin computers may be powered by paper supercapacitors

29th May, 2010 by adina
Tags: Device, News, SWNT

A new technique was made public by Stanford University. It could provide power for extremely thin devices. The SWNTs (single walled carbon nanotubes) are printed on paper that is treated with polyvinylidene fluoride and could store energy, like supercapacitors do. The nanotubes are very thin but also very stable and their loss of a potential charge after about 2,500 cycles would be a very small amount.

Although a similar method has been tried in the past, it had to be assembled using two substrates and therefore could not be assembled too quickly. The new technique permits printing all at once and is consequently much faster and also less expensive.

The Stanford team expects to use the new technique for real applications, but no deadline has been communicated. The new method may be combined with other techniques like printed processors and flexible displays, which allow the creation of devices that are just a fraction the thickness existing technology permits. The soldier watch of Hewlett Packard is such an example.

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