Funding supercapacitors for electric cars
A new battery that can be charged in minutes and run for a lot longer is being developed by QUT Professor Nunzio Motta in collaboration with Professor Yeugang Zhang in a project funded by $250,000 grant from the Queensland-Chinese Academy of Sciences Collaborative Research Fund.
Professor Motta, from QUT’s Science and Engineering Faculty, and Professor Yuegang, a leading expert in the field of lithium batteries and energy storage materials from China’s Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, have joined forces to try to develop superior electric car batteries that overcome the current drawbacks of long recharge times and short running distances.
Professor Motta said the aim of the project was to find a scalable technology to produce a low-cost supercapacitors, an alternative to traditional lithium batteries, with the highest possible performance.
The project team also includes Professor Peter Talbot, Professor Jose Alarco, Professor Geoffrey Will, Professor Chen Yang, Associate Professor Anthony O’Mullane, Dr Jennifer MacLeod from QUT and dr Meinan Lui, Dr Fangmin Ze, Dr Xinyi Zhang from Suzhou Chinese Academy of Science.