TU-TESL

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According to foreign media reports, electric vehicles and electric planes are becoming more and more popular, which means that you may be able to get rid of fossil fuels and move towards a more sustainable future. Although significant technological advances have greatly improved the efficiency of such tools, there are still several problems that hinder their popularization. One of the biggest challenges is quality, because both electric cars and supercapacitors are very heavy. A research team at Texas A & M University's School of engineering is looking at the issue from a unique perspective. Now most of the research focuses on increasing the energy density of batteries and super capacitors to reduce their own weight, and then reduce the weight of electric vehicles. However, a research team led by Dr. Jodie lutkenhaus, a professor in Artie McFerrin's Department of chemical engineering at Texas A & M University, believes that energy can be stored in body structural panels to reduce the weight of electric vehicles and electric airplanes. This approach presents a technical challenge because of the need to develop batteries and supercapacitors with the same mechanical properties as the body structural panels. However, the electrodes of batteries and supercapacitors are usually made of brittle materials, and their mechanical strength is not strong. However, the team proposed a process to make new type of super capacitor electrode, which greatly improved the mechanical properties of the electrode. In this study, the team made very strong and hard electrodes based on the dopamine functional fossil moene and Kevlar nanofibers. Dopamine is also a neurotransmitter, a highly adhesive molecule, which can imitate the protein that can make mussels stick to any surface. The mechanical properties of the electrode are significantly improved by using dopamine and calcium ions. In fact, the supercapacitor electrode developed by the researchers is the graphene electrode with the highest functional efficiency so far. Functional efficiency is an index to evaluate multifunctional materials based on mechanical and electrochemical properties. This research brings a new series of structural electrodes, which opens the door for the development of light electric vehicles and electric aircraft. Although the current research focuses on supercapacitors, Dr. lutkenhaus hopes to apply the research results to develop solid and hard batteries.