Graphene Battery | All You Need To Know About It

We have seen in this article that the Lithium batteries that are currently used are far from perfect. The degradation that they face is a real problem, but, as it is a problem related to the material, the only apparent solution to this problem is to try out different materials.

This is where Graphene comes into play. Graphene offers a set of unique characteristics, due to which, it appears to be a really promising replacement for the lithium battery.

What Is Graphene And What Are Its Benefits

Graphene is a material made from carbon atoms that are tightly bound in a hexagonal structure. The important part here is that it is only one atomic layer thick, which makes it 2D, it is also the first 2D material known to man. 

Being two-dimensional gives Graphene a lot of advantages, it is super light, highly conductive, and incredibly flexible. Its Carbon content gives it more advantages like high strength and durability, and low weight.

Talking about Graphene's conductivity, it is even more conductive than copper, which is one best available conductors of heat and electricity.

A material like Graphene could be a huge turning point in the course of the world. With the advantages that it offers, it is expected to change almost all the aspects of technology as we know it today.

Graphene could be used for making next-level screens and batteries to never-before-seen armour and structures. It is considered to be the strongest material that is known to exist, being around 200 times stronger than steel in proportion to its weight.

Graphene is the closest that we have gotten to the ideal material, it is truly a "wonder material". Since its discovery, its potential uses have only been growing. So then why hasn't it taken over the world yet?

Graphene was first obtained from Graphite in 2004 by two professors from the University of Manchester. While it was done with the help of normal tape and seems pretty easy to obtain, its economic mass production is still a problem that we haven't been able to solve.

Though the day this problem gets solved doesn't seem to be too far away as companies have already started promising Graphene products.

Let's now take a look at how Graphene could revolutionize batteries.

The Graphene Battery

While there are a number of ways in which Graphene could be used to create batteries, the best-suited one is expected to move away from the conventional electrochemical cell and is expected to be based on supercapacitor technology.

Supercapacitors store energy in the form of an electric field, on the other hand, conventional batteries do so in the form of chemical reactions. Due to this, supercapacitors are able to charge and discharge at unreal speeds and last for tens of thousands of cycles.

Mass production of these Graphene-based supercapacitors has been a challenge for a long time now as the cost of production is too high for these. But as the research keeps going, and more and more companies trying to make graphene a reality, the day doesn't seem too far when it will finally be.

Graphene Vs Lithium

Graphene batteries are better than Lithium batteries in probably every way. Graphene batteries offer way faster charging times, they offer way more charging cycles, and as they offer higher heat and electrical conductivity they also run cooler. All of this makes them really good for small spaces like inside phones.

With that, Graphene batteries also offer a way higher energy density than Lithium batteries, which is up to around 1000Wh per kg compared to the 180Wh per kg of Lithium batteries. This makes Graphene batteries particularly good for larger uses like for electric vehicles.

Graphene batteries would also be safer than Lithium ones. While Lithium has been serving humanity for a long time without a lot of cases of faults, graphene batteries are expected to eliminate even those few cases.

The thing with Lithium batteries is that there are a lot of precautions to be taken with them in order to use them safely, like keeping them in an ideal temperature range, protecting them from physical damage, and disposing of them carefully, otherwise, there is a risk of fire and release of toxic materials. Graphene, on the other hand, poses no such problems, it is stronger, more flexible, and more stable.

Conclusion

With all the benefits of Graphene, it truly appears to be a "wonder material". The possibilities of a future with Graphene seem really astounding. But the challenge of its mass production still remains even after more than a decade of its discovery.

The question arises, like every other "wonder material" is Graphene too good to exist?

I don't think so, if it were true then we would've stopped working on graphene years ago, specialty the companies, they don't like to waste their money and they have spent quite a bit on the research and development of Graphene. If they are still working after so many years, then they definitely see light at the end of the tunnel.

Graphene batteries are going to appear pretty soon now. One sign of this is the appearance of Graphene composite batteries. Graphene composite batteries are just Lithium batteries that use graphene to enhance cathode performance. These batteries offer the benefits of graphene while technically being both Lithium and Graphene batteries.

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