Novel Ultracapacitor: WN Aerogel Electrode with Polyoxometalate Polymers Electrolyte

Novel Ultracapacitor: Tungsten Nitride Aerogel Electrode with Polyoxometalate Polymers Electrolyte DOE Grant No. DE-FG03-98ER86073 Amount: $100,000 Small Business Chemat Technology, Inc. 19365 Business Center Drive Suite 8 Northridge, CA 91324-3526 Dr. Yuhong Huang, Principal Investigator Ms. Jenny Sajoto, Business Official (818) 727-9786 Research Institution Auburn University 207 Samford Hall Auburn University, AL 3849-5110 Ultracapacitors with high energy and power density are needed for potential energy storage applications in electric vehicles. This project will develop such ultracapacitors in which tungsten nitride is used as the electrode and a polyoxometalate polymer is used as the electrolyte. This composite ultracapacitor satisfies the three main requirements for high energy and power density: (1) the nitride electrode has relatively high surface capacitance and high metallic conductivity; (2) the polyoxometalate polymer electrolyte has high ion concentration which would provide high ion conductivity (if, as expected, the ion mobility is very high) and high operating voltage (more than 4 volts of voltage window is expected); and (3) the construction of the ultracapacitors can be reliably packaged using less packaging material. Other advantages of this composite ultracapacitor include the use of light metal foil as the current collector and low cost. In Phase I, the nitride electrode/solid electrolyte composite will be synthesized and characterized, and prototype ultracapacitors will be fabricated and tested. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: Electrochemical capacitors should find application in the automotive industry as load leveling for electric vehicles or as power sources for automotive subsystems such as the starter, regenerative braking, the heater for the catalytic converter, and air bags. Other applications include portable electronic devices such as notebook computers, cellular phones, and video cameras. Potential military applications include rail guns/electric guns, electric drive vehicles, missile fuzes, power back-up, bridge power, phased array radar, and short lived sonar buoys._