New materials in the energy storage era

Who supports a new generation of materials by design?

S.D. acknowledges support from the Center for the Next Generation of Materials by Design, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308). A.A.-G. acknowledges support from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (Grant No. BSE-ASPU-162439-CF).

Can nanomaterials improve the performance of energy storage devices?

The development of nanomaterials and their related processing into electrodes and devices can improve the performance and/or development of the existing energy storage systems. We provide a perspective on recent progress in the application of nanomaterials in energy storage devices, such as supercapacitors and batteries.

Which nanomaterials are used in energy storage?

Although the number of studies of various phenomena related to the performance of nanomaterials in energy storage is increasing year by year, only a few of them—such as graphene sheets, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), carbon black, and silicon nanoparticles—are currently used in commercial devices, primarily as additives (18).

Can graphene-based materials be used for energy storage?

There is enormous interest in the use of graphene-based materials for energy storage. Graphene-based materials have great potential for application in supercapacitors owing to their unique two-dimensional structure and inherent physical properties, such as excellent electrical conductivity and large specific surface area.

What are the applications of energy storage technology?

These applications and the need to store energy harvested by triboelectric and piezoelectric generators (e.g., from muscle movements), as well as solar panels, wind power generators, heat sources, and moving machinery, call for considerable improvement and diversification of energy storage technology.

What is the best energy storage technology?

The Li-ion battery, with its ubiquitous presence in modern society, is probably the best-known energy storage technology. Research in post-Li-ion batteries has been active over the past decades 156, 159, 160, but many technologies with positive results in laboratory tests have not yet been commercialized.