SBIR Phase I: High Performance Supercapacitors Based on Nano-engineered Electrodes

This SBIR Phase I research proposal will develop a novel super-capacitor that will have two times the energy density and ten times the power density of the best conventional carbon-based super-capacitors. This will be achieved by fabricating a nano-engineered electrode comprising of core/shell fibrils with Titanium Carbide (TiC) as an inner core and Carbide-Derived Carbon (CDC) as a shell. This novel core/shell nano-structured electrode material combines the recent breakthroughs in fabricating one-dimensional metal carbides and precision pore size engineering of carbide-derived carbon materials. Due to the metallic conductivity of the TiC core, the proposed electrode inherently possesses high electrical conductivity allowing fast transport of electrons. Moreover, this new electrode design not only eliminates the use of a current collector but also drastically reduces contact resistance. The use of nano-engineered CDC shells provides ideal electrode structure properties of high surface area, tunable pore size and uniform pore size distribution, achieving high energy density. Super-capacitors are indispensable energy storage devices because their performance bridges those of batteries and conventional capacitors. The most significant challenges to realizing super-capacitors are to dramatically increase their energy density and power density. The proposed superior super-capacitors will meet the needs of quickly growing markets of hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), city buses, rails (heavy rail vehicles, tramways and metro), and renewable energy systems (wind power and solar applications). This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).