August 25, 2008

Plastic car batteries advance

Hit the right concoction of plastics or plastics and ceramic nanoparticles and you get ferroelectric polymer capacitors that can store more electricity than previous types. The plastic capacitors are much lighter than lithium-ion and other batteries, and can deliver quicker bursts of power.

The improved plastic and plastic-ceramic capacitors bring lightweight batteries for electric and hybrid cars a step closer.

Research paper:
Ferroelectric Polymers for Electrical Energy Storage, Synthesis and Characterization of Ferroelectric Block Copolymers Containing Oligoanilines, Electrical Breakdown in Ferroelectric Polymers for Electrical Energy Storage
American Chemical Society National Meeting, Philadelphia, August 17-21, 2008

Researchers' homepage:
Wang Research Group

Related stories and briefs:
Plastic power -- the researchers' previous work

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