Novel High Density, Solid State Ultracapacitors

Current electric energy storage (EES) technologies cannot meet the requirement of both high power density and high energy density for portable electronics in general and gun fired munitions in particular. Advanced Materials and Energy Systems, Inc. (AMES) plans to resolve this issue by developing a novel High Density UltraCapacitor (HDUC). The innovation of the proposed HDUC is the use of ultrahigh permittivity dielectric composite being developed in AMES as the dielectric layers of multilayer capacitors. Thus the proposed HDUC will possess power density matching the capacitor, and energy density much higher than the state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries. The key issue of proposed work is to develop a dielectric polymer composite with Silicon based Amorphous Ceramic (SAC) as the filler. The composite will possess the ultrahigh dielectric permittivity, high dielectric strength, and high bulk resistivity. SAC is a new class of ceramics with a novel electric and dielectric property. Most recently, AMES has developed a SAC with dielectric permittivity many orders of magnitude higher than traditional dielectric materials. For this Phase I project, AMES will investigate the process to fabricate a SAC composite, characterize the properties of produced composite, also study the ability of energy absorption with high charging rate, perform the feasibility studies on the developing and prototyping this dielectric material for high power and energy density EES that would meet all military requirement.