Combine this with e-paper for killer tech.

Killjoy

how do you regulate the charge coming out of a super capacitor?

godwhacker

@Joseph_Shaw_520: prolly has great recycled uses

lldsandsll

@Themindtaker: Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about the tech, but what about disposal? We need to be thinking about that nowdays too.

Joseph_Shaw_520

@Joseph_Shaw_520: one would hope that since they're going to be holding onto extremely large (at least to our squishy bodies) charges, the tubes should be well protected from us (or us from them). Being suspended in a polymer matrix should also keep them from getting out also.

Themindtaker

Yes, but how fast can it absorb a charge, and how much can it store?

I wanna see something that can capture lightning!

But my obsession with lightning aside, this seems pretty freaking cool, and definitely a needed technology.

closhedbb

YAAY Carbon Nanotubes!!!
They still worse than asbestos??

Joseph_Shaw_520

@godwhacker: The same way that you do with NiMH or Li* packs: a motor controller for speed control and a big fat fuse for when something goes wrong.

dingus

If these have the ESR needed to drive an electric car, there's nothing safe about them. Safer than maybe lithium-anything, since it doesn't contain a metal that combusts on contact with air.

dingus

great! I can finally build my riverboat.

helldiver

But wait, won't these create miniature black holes?

sold2early

@godwhacker: Magical "little people"....nah same way you do with current caps, based on the property of the materials. They'll have ratings, and devices will be engineered to use em.

Joseph_Shaw_520

@Slartibartfast: And an overabundance in Terminator populations. You didn't think the world's production of coltan was going into tantalum capacitors for a technical reason?

dingus

After building all these nano-tube batteries (with carbon) for the sake of reducing green-house-gas emissions (of carbon), there won't be any carbon (carbon) left in the atmosphere. This is going to cause a catastrophic reduction in global sea level.
Has Al Gore been informed?

Slartibartfast

oy. the production of the space elevator is gonna take up the entire world's supply of carbon nanotubes. we won't have any left over for hybrid car batteries.

krystar

Awesome, and given the fact that they are produced in a lightweight layer sheet technology means they are more open to being formed and shaped giving them more freedom to where they might be placed in a device.

darthuv

@godwhacker: "how do you regulate the charge coming out of a super capacitor?"

Here's a hint: You have to somehow resist the flow of electric charge.

ripfire

Well, I won't hold my breath, but here's hoping it pans out.

crazydave_w

@helldiver: + 12 for "River World" reference.

@ripfire: "You have to somehow resist the flow of electric charge."

But resistance is futile!

GadgetPlay

@closhedbb: The guys at MIT last year said they could use this tech to make a cell phone battery that lasts about the same but could charge in 5-10 minutes...and no battery memory problems.

It sounds like the holy grail.

Tank

@krystar: Right... since carbon's so hard to find these days.

rubicon_65

Silly closhedbb, lightning can only be stored in DeLoreans. Everyone knows THAT!

Jafro

Roll up your "grass" with some of this paper, you will go places I tell ya.

danatoth

@Joseph_Shaw_520:
The hell with disposal,,, anything with NANOTUBES gets my vote.

PDO

god I love technology...and the advancement of.

Daimyo Nintendo

@CrashingOut: I heard that the reason technologies such as this never sees the light of day because our government is afraid that our enemies might be able to get a hold of this and take out our advantage.

Take for example Raytheon's XOS Exoskeleton. Now pair that with EEStor's battery (which happened to garner Lockheed's interests). And what do you get? This.

ripfire

JESUS CHRIST NOT THIS BULLSHIT AGAIN. Didn't we all just go through a rant aobut supercapacitance and how the best of the best in farads is F$@#ING 1/10th A BATTERY?!?! Unless we see 1000% improvement f$#@ you. Really, I'm getting sick of having my hopes jerked on a chain. I've heard of NOTHING more vaporous and out of reach touted so much before in my consciousness. I'm fed up with everything except the result, which NOBODY has given, with these new battery technologies. WE'VE HEARD THIS DREAM FOREVER, can we get a ban on anything short of a result? I hate to be discriminatory but it's almost like spam to me at this point.
/rantedout

CrashingOut

Seriously, enough of this crap already.

rockntrumpet