Tag Archives: Zap&Go

Portable graphene-based supercapacitor comes to market soon

Dexter Johnson’s excitement is palpable in a Feb. 25, 2016 posting (on his Nanoclast blog on the IEEE [Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers] website) about a graphene-based supercapacitor,

At long last, there is a company that is about to launch a commercially available product based on a graphene-enabled supercapacitor. A UK-based startup called Zap&Go has found a way to exploit the attractive properties of graphene for supercapactiors to fabricate a portable charger and expects to make it available to consumers this year.

While graphene’s theoretical surface area of 2630 square meters per gram is pretty high, and would presumably bode well for increased capacity, this density is only possible with a single, standalone graphene sheet. And therein lies the rub: you can’t actually use a standalone sheet for the electrode of a supercapacitor because it will result in a very low volumetric capacitance. To get to a real-world device, you have to stack the sheets on top of each other. When you do this, the surface area is reduced.

Nonetheless graphene does have two main benefits going for it in supercapacitors: its ability to be structured into smaller sizes and its high conductance.

It is these qualities that Zap&Go have exploited for their portable charger. While there are other rechargers on the market, they are built around Li-ion batteries that take a long time to charge up and still present some small danger when packed up for traveling.

While your devices will still take just as long to charge, there are some compelling benefits,

You can find out more in Dexter’s posting, or on Zap&Go’s website, or on the company’s IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign page (it’s closed and they more than reached their goal).

The charger is available for pre-ordering and will be delivered in Summer 2016, according to the company’s website store.

One final comment, I’m not endorsing this product, in other words, caveat emptor (buyer beware).