A 4 farad 1.2v graphene supercapacitor and how to make it step by step. You can buy kits and materials for your own experiments as well as my ebooks from our webshop at secure.working...
I thought no one was making videos that perfectly explained these convoluted things. It makes me happy that people are showing how to make these basic parts of very cool new technologies
LOL your laughter at the achievable scale of these things despite almost no care or precision taken, is infectious. Think I'm going to have to go back over some of your earlier vids as a primer and give it a go at last. I've been merely observing for too long.
STOP🤨🤨🤨🙏🙏🙏. Be warned… if you subscribe and try even ONE. You’re gunna get got. I have a whole kitchen slowly turning into a laboratory and a gsmall group of neighbours that are convinced I’m “not normal”. Also… your going to have (to use the Australian vernacular), a “shittonne” of fun 😂😂
Damn right! Now how about this question? How do we know that the GO is actually graphene oxide? That would certainly account for why the AC does so much better, right? We really do know that the activated charcoal is as advertised. The GO....not so much. We really need a bodged together Raman Spectrometer in here!
I don't know if I would word it that way as I wouldn't dare risking to offend him, but I would agree that RMS is having way too much fun! I'm thinking he must be single, but if not I'd like him to explain again how he exfoliates graphite in the microwave.... without getting scalped by the wife that is.
Hello Robert, I just wanted to say I have been putting off opening a google anything, BUT I did cause I APPRECIATE all the effort and commonsense you are able to impart to anyone willing to get their hands dirty. SO>>>> Thank you for your time and efforts. GREAT job
Your channel is giving me flashbacks to the days when BBC used to actually be educational. Thought provoking content that encourages us to explore the perpetually uncharted world of tinkering in our own garages and kitchens? We haven't had that spirit here since 1969! lol. Hats off to you sir and thank you for the inspiration. I really appreciate your enthusiasm in your presentations. It's contagious
This video was the spark which ignited a raging fire. (Not literally) I have watched it and shown it to so many friends. My obsession with building supercapacitors marked the start of a very wonderfully strange chapter in my life. the one thing that I was inspired to try was to use “neverwet.” As a separator on carbon fiber veil that has been lightly electroplated with either Au, Cu, Ni or Ag. using sodium silicate as both a binder, and electrolyte; when mixed with a very small amount of grapheme oxide and acetone and doing what could be interpreted as a supercritical drying process, by freezing it, and subsequently baking it @ 250-450f in a (homemade) autoclave under the highest vacuum I could generate with a couple of reversed air compressors and a refrigerator pump , the whole thing puffs up like breakfast cereal, and hardens. Technically; I believe it falls under the definition of solid state but I don’t have any collegiate education, so its highly likely I’m wrong about that…(I later realized I had made a kind of grapheme/silica aerogel) it was solid state but in regular atmospheric conditions(I live on the rainy side of the big island of Hawaii) it would melt after a few days. I also tried this as a bastard version of the “crystal battery” which has been used in the RU-vid community by many, for a long time. This tiny device seemed to charge itself. Unfortunately the majority of my toiling was destroyed in the 2018 LERZ eruption which ate half of my neighborhood, and proceeded to melt a few more including the town of Kapoho, the largest eruption in the recorded history of Hawaiian islands. It also added an additional 18 acres or so to the island after filling in Kapoho bay. The lava was extremely liquid, and at one point it measured almost 4000 degrees Fahrenheit. I have been working as a guide in the ocean and on land for a dozen or so years taking tourists to get on top of and adjacent to active lava-ocean entries. I have never measured lava more than about 2700f. My point is that there’s an awful lot of elements that came to the surface in my neighborhood and have been oxidizing in different layers for the past 4 years. The lava was 120ft thick in some places(will be cooling off for the next 20 years or more)but it is porous and has seawater leaching into it. I’m wondering if the flow fields may possibly be able to hold a charge…there’s a geothermal power plant that just so happens to be surrounded by the new lava… I find it very intriguing. I have 2 children who are 3 and 5; I rarely get the opportunity to talk to anyone who has the slightest idea what I am trying to say…what do you think?
Thank you Robert, not for only answering my question of "how to" cleanly and clearly, but inspiring me to experiment and find tomorrows technological break-throughs thanks again great as always keep it up!
I think you have a fantastic ethos regarding try it yourself, change the recipe etc. That is the way I have always learnt, often more with failures, but persistence is the key to success. Keep up the good work, you will make that million.
People may be wondering why you're laughing. Not many years ago a one farad capacitor was pretty much unthinkable on a practical level. To be able to make one in 5 minutes using pennies of common materials from your house is unimaginable. It's the electro-chemical equivalent of being able to make a smartphone in your tool shed for $5.
I remember solving physics exercises and having to restart calculating from scratch when getting a result in farrad class because it was unrealistic and when you get a result not in uF or nF you're almost certain that you've made a mistake and have to start from scratch.
I so love watching your videos. I was interested in science as a child and was learning from a teacher that reminds me of yourself. Having someone with such a infectious attitude of teaching is grand. I was transferred during my middle school years but never found a science teacher such as yourself that was so knowledgeable of his teaching as much as you. I find it is never too late to learn. Thank you so much for your videos. From across the pond Hello and have a great day.
And there was I, thinking that you'd need all sorts of clean-room conditions and highly technical and expensive processes. Thanks for that, subscribed! I shall be watching a lot more of your videos!
So touching to listen to your enjoyment upon pondering the measurements. thank you for your consideration to teach. the video was crystal clear and well done With tons of highly informative research. This is undoubtedly the best technical video I have seen in the last number of years. This was recommended and I couldn't have imagined the value. So it was quite encouraging. Funny I was searching around asking about measuring large capacitance meters and was told they did not exist. Glad that was wrong! Cheers!
Superb video, outstanding results Imagine banks of these to fill a building for storage of PV solar driving inverters, better yet no inverters and use the D.C.directly
Hello, you are doing a very interesting job, but more valuable is that you share the fire of the heart. Good luck with your endeavors and good health to you!
This is all new to me, I'm fascinated watching your experiments, particularly the Hemp and Graphene battery. I wonder how many businesses (big and small) have approached you? Anyway, keep up the great work, thank you from Australia.
Really astonishing on table top without any messier a 4 farad grate... on the face of others who make it so delicate and something that can be manufactured in pricey labs...
Very well said .... I belong to India from a ruler back ground ... I was fortunate that I got chance to study and become capable to earn bred ... but when I go back I created people and villages having less electronic... still they just have 4 hr in full day ... I always think of doing things that could benefit them ... so I keep on reading and understanding things that can help them .. Like super capacitors ... they can charge fast ... but the thing is that they can with hold that like battery... I constantly look beat of both worlds... they can charge fast .... with stand the charge like battery ... cheap so that all people can afford and can solve there real life problems ....
That is outstanding!!! I'm going to make some of these and see how they charge with my Bedini-starship coil energizer. This is really useful information, and a must try. Thanks for this amazing video
So if I am understanding this right your 4 farad capacitor, translated into size comparison to those capacitors you find in a clock radio for example, would have to be the size of the Kitchen roll you have there. (depending on the voltage used)
I am saving up now, so I can buy one of the kits from your shop!! And I am going to have Sooo much Fun!! I hope to be off grid within this year!! 🙂. XxX.
I love all your videos, very informative and extremely easy to understand. You make a great teacher. Unfortunately I can hear what you're saying in this video and I'm excited to learn about this. Can you please add subtitles?
Bravo. Well done and great work stimulating both the young and the old. Experiments do not have to be hard nor exceptionally complex, just well thought out. Hint, use the noodle...
I love this video. When I was working with electronics in the 80's, if we needed a capacitor even close to one fared, we would use an amplifier circuit to simulate it because such a large value capacitor was a practical impossibility. Now you can slap one together as easily as any Mod Podge craft project.
fantastic - clear explanation and fun - yes experiment the components are there so why not... how exciting - really this just opens up a whole new world... thankyou
nice one bought your e-books too, Graphene and supercapacitors - a good excuse to build a kiln in the backyard methinks... love messing with fire bricks and acids... Are you still making the ink for sale?
awesome yes I have watched - very inspired by your work and knew I would just have to try something from your vast pool of info... I'm loving the graphene intercalated compound film at the moment, although handy little amounts of aluminium chloride have proven hard to come by in Australia I do have a source albeit expensive - saving pennies...
Great vid Rob, full of step by step information as well as many tantalising ideas hinted at. I really must make the effort to replicate your experiment and hopefully come up with ideas along the way. All the best - Martin.
Thank you very much for sharing these information with us . I have several questions. Hope you don't mind! 1.If I connect several hundred of these "SuperCapacitor" in parallel can I draw lets say 100 amps without any dangerous or burn these plates ? And If the answer is yes 2. how can I calculate the duration which these Capacitors can deliver 100 amps (using this formula ---- Ah = F * V / 3600----) or something else ? 3.How much the ESR or (the peak current )? 4.my final question is If I increase the surface area size of these plates the capacitance will increase but the voltage rate will decrease right ? Thank you very much :)
Thank you for this video! It is exactly what I have been hoping for in the context making carbon based energy storage. Right now I am puttering with making graphene, and I think I have a couple grams of it, but it's still a little short of being in a usable form. My research in this stuff in forced to take a back seat, right now I am putting together a farm business and that takes most of my mental focus. I hope to be able to power an electric bicycle with a much larger unit in a couple years, after my LiPoly expires. I think it would be great fun to see one of your large super caps on a bike, that would be a real ground breaking video. I am curious how great the difference in thickness of active material is between your two systems, and also I wonder what the upper limits are on how thick one can make the active material, and what limiting factors tend to come in to play as one thickens the active material.
+Ray Wharton shame about the delay mate - but good luck with the farm. I was thinking about a bike myself - i might buy one to do just exactly that with lol - I should measure it but it was just a how to make it demo. The limiting factors would be resistance mate - the thicker it gets the greater the distance to the collector plate and the higher the resistance. Attachment will be a factor too and electrolyte penetration
+Robert Murray-Smith lol. I was sitting here pondering the transient punch through V, Q and resistance issues as I saw this post. Downloaded Grafoil engineering guide and thought, quite an engineering trade-space. Permutations offers much room for optimization and plenty of interesting lab work. Amazing what 50 years of quality lab work can yield for things like grafoil.
+BluesDoctor i tend to recalander the foil down to a few microns via a two roll mill - it is amazing stuff and you are quite right there is a ton of work that can be done here
Initially congratulation for your video and your humour. Thus to obtain a super electrolytique capacitor one takes a graphite sheet one applies graphite oxide diluted in acetone above, one applies an insulator example a paper paper towel over the oxide coating graphite dried and then one pours some drop of adhesive contact above the insulator and then one gives an oxide graphite sheet impressed of graphite and that it ? Which proportion of acetone mixes you one with graphite oxide? Thank You :)
I love watching your videos, very interesting and informative, may I recommend a microphone on your coller or something closer to your mouth, your shop creates an enormous amount of echo which makes it very hard to follow what your saying. Keep up the excellent videos, thank you 😊
I remember watching an older video on capacitors and capacitance and them saying it would take a capacitor the size of a skyscraper to hold 1 farrad, that been said i think that was for oldschool capacitor design
there are a whole range if you watch other videos i talk about binders but PU, PTFA, SBR, CMC, PVA are some good ones and around 5-10% by weight works well
The content of the video is so amazing, but the quality of the video is so blurry it's really sad. We should all pitch in and buy you a better video camera so we can really see the details of what you're doing.
A closer view of the detail things would be excellent. I often watch from my cell phone and the RU-vid app will not allow me to zoom in or at least not that I have found. I used to be able to zoom but about 8 months ago something changed and I can't anymore. Bummer!!!
I watch all your video and they are great . Can we work on a higher voltage supercapacitor? We live in an AC world and that's where the scientific challenge is finding a dielectric that can store high energy yet can withstand ac voltage.
Hi I have a question about your carbon powder and binders you are covering in this video. When it comes to the acetone method, are you mixing just acetone by itself with the carbon powder or is there a third additive that is the actual binder to this formula? My apologies but I wasn't quite sure what I heard in the video. My last question is about the current collector materials in this demonstration. Did you use the same current collector materials for both capacitors? If I was not mistaken in what I heard you describe I think you used graphite foil for both capacitors. I'm aware that on one capacitor you used activated carbon and on the other capacitor you used graphene oxide if I heard you correctly. I am wanting to try my hand at this so this and you have covered this in detail and I cannot thank you enough for sharing this information with others. Take care and have a Merry Christmas, Flash001USA...
Wow, that was awesome! I am an engineer rather than a scientist. Thanks for the explanation -- very interesting. If the capacitor was pressed properly in a production environment, how much capacitance would result? Thank you. I'm looking forward to the next in the series. I do have one question though, I don't understand what is a symmetric capacitor vs non-symetric. Is it what I might call a polalrized vs non-polarized capacitor?
+Inspironator i have made the 1 cm square graphene one at 9 farads with three dips and compression. Symmetric is just where the same active material is used on both sides - initially it has no polarity - after the first charge discharge cycle it gains polarity - asymmetric is where two different active materials are used - this has polarity but it depends on the material used
That's awesome, sir. I am a computer student with nearly little or no knowledge of chemistry. After a little study, I did try heating up graphite powder in a ceramic bowl with 43% phosphoric acid and a few drops of dil. h2o2. What formed was a spongy light grey residue. Don't know if there is any graphene there but there was remarkable increase in conductivity compared to the dry graphite powder. Kindly, cast some light on what must have happened. Thanks and regards.
Very nice summary to tie things together. Thank you! Experimenting with various sifted carbon grain sizes with various adhesive glue viscosities looks promising. Perhaps even a compressable spongy adhesive to make a variable supercapacitor!
Hi Mate... After running the motor until it stops, hook the battery up to your joule thief...I've done this with my batteries and it has power left after running the motor to run the thief for quite some time.....
If the long capacitor electrodes are impregnated with an electrolyte, the capacity increase. In some cases, is impregnated under vacuum 24-48 hours. But even without vacuum markedly significant increase in capacity. Thank you for your Vidoje they sparked my interest and now I find it difficult to stay :)
Please tell us about the properties of different electrolytes. acidic, alkaline, salt, neutral, which feature of their work, in super capacitors. and is it possible to use an electrolyte designed for electrolytic capacitors?
I have a question, Can this type of SuperCapacitor work through a heating element? (let's say I stack 100, or 1000, of them together).... can they run a heating element for a few minutes (after being charged of course), since the load has a lot of resistance? Thanks
First off I want to say thank you for these videos. So I’ve followed your channel since your video on making a solar cell from extracted leaf chlorophyll. I’ve had hopes of someday building my own generator one day for years now. Something of which I know very little about, so I’m constantly looking for answers. I’m constantly finding myself back here with a great deal of the answers I’m looking for. But the one I’m having troubles answering is whether or not these supercaps are a suitable alternative for energy storage for off grid use. I’m reading and seeing a lot of back and fourth on this. Would love to hear your thoughts on this if you wouldn’t mind.
Hi Rob. At the end of this video you guestimated that this would be about 500F per gram. How does this compare to your latest iteration that's 3wh/kg. I've tried finding out what equations to use to convert and compare the measurements but I still don't understand how to do that properly.
Could you do the same thing to make a capacitor that has the same dimensions as a button battery? I think that would be a real treat. That could also make them easier to link together within a system while saving space along the vertical profile or the unit.
Very thorough explanation. Thank you. Just one small detail I would like to mention. The mike picked up a lot of noise form the foils. Something to keep in mind for future videos. Thanks...
I really enjoyed watching this video and it helped me a lot to understand how the preparation of the super-capacitors is done I am currently in the course of a project to manufacture a supercapacitor and I have a question if you stay working on the supercapacitor will have I the opportunity to spend an end-of-study internship in your laboratory
LOL, been watching old videos. I have this standard ~7.5"*9.5" composition book with 100 sheets on it. I calculated ~18A per sheet pair so ~200A per book. A stack of 4-8 books could start a truck. That's between 1/8 to 1/4 of the normal battery size. And this is with just a standard "everyone knows" recipe using kitchen towels.. LOL.
4 Farads on that device? Ok, Officially mind blown. Not long ago I was doing a Fire Investigation and we found hundreds of Capacitors in a Arsonists storage shed. The PhD that helped us on our case said a 1 Farad Cap would be as big as a room. Either I got the dumbest Engineer or I misunderstood what he was telling me.
a farad used to be huge when stored on a cap mate but that started to change around 20 years ago now you can store a farad on around 12 square centimetres of active material - but you are right 4 farads on that little thing is mind blowing lol
At 4 Farad and 2 mg of material, you would be looking at around 2000 F/g; much higher than your off-the-cuff calculations of 500 - 700 F/g you call out in the video. That just about beats the field far as I can tell. I did read somewhere that a nickel hydroxide electrode was producing +3000 F/g but given your environment, set-up and simple chemistry, that's downright impressive.
all the info is on the vid for folks to make and verify if they wish mate - there is going to be a difference on specific energy when the final device is put together
One of the things I think about with graphene is purity, or just making sure what you have IS (the right type) Graphene and not just activated carbon, like you said (Especially By The Ton) By Contrast, is the quality of nanotubes easier to come by? (Whether grown on a substrate, or pulled from a forrest
Before I was intimidated to make a simple electrolytic capacitors for my electronics 101 class now after watching your videos it looks like I’ll actually make a great super capacitor has one of my class projects thank you for bringing it down to a simple level that’s not intimidating easy to understand. As easy as making a penny and nickel lemon battery 👍
Been trying to do the same with graphene and aluminium foil and carbon cloth, with a paper towel separator dipped in electrolyte (tried KOH, Na2SO4, and H2SO4). Always ends up discharging through itself even though there isn’t any direct connection between the electrodes. Dunno where it’s going wrong? Some help would be much appreciated. Cheers!
sir u are so inspiring........I am your fan.....I remember reading somewhere that voltage in a charged capacitor falls exponentially with time....what is chemical part of a capacitor/battery which is responsible for volts? and what part of it is responsible for amps?
There are a few more characteristics necessary to make a good useable capacitor. Such as leakage ( how long can it hold a charge.?) , voltage rating, and internal resistance, etc.
+Robert Murray-Smith and would one still need to exfoliate that "charcoal/activated graphite" and then hydrothermally process that exfoliated "charcoal to activated carbon" to get GRAPHENE ( or the acetone/h20 combo to reduce to GRAPHENE) or am I still missing or adding a step to the gentlemen's above (charcoal to graphite to GRAPHENE ) process? Thank you and apologies for any redundancy in the query, And SUOER thanks for this share, big big ups Mr. Smith!
+ROMAN GABRIEL I think he just wants to make chatcoal and grind it up mate. If you wanted to graphetise the charcoal you would need to hydrothermally carbonise it with a nickel or iron catalyst then grind it up - without a doubt any processing of the carbon that increases surface area or functionality will lead to a better capacitor - but that is where the experimentation comes in
That's a pretty nifty little device for measuring capacitance but I think it's kind of silly that it set up to make you hold the button in the entire time it seems like a hell of a shortcoming in design
how many seconds did they run for at 1.2v .04ma? is 1F 1W for 1s? if the 1F discharged more than 4x faster than the 4F one than graphine is better. btw 1m2 of (assuming) 4Ws capacity is equal to one 4.2V 3000mah 18650 battery. so the question is: how many cm3 can you fit that in and how much will it cost to do! if the answer is under $20 and less than 36 (1.8*6.5*pi) then you should be giving panasonic a call!
Since you are using an electrolyte, would it be more considered a pseudo-capacitor? I'm new to this stuff, and have neither a chemistry, electrical, nor physics background. Wondering if there is any merit to this idea? Taking some linen or hemp, throwing it in the dryer to make lint. Heat and/or chemical treat it to get it very highly conductive (there was a team that made ultra conductive fibers, on par with graphene, out of hemp by heating it). Then also spray this with graphene, press down, thicken, press down, thicken, press down (while also adding more graphene). Take some silica aerogel, also spray/coat one side with graphene. Connect the rest of the conductive, graphene coated fibrous mass to the aerogel. On the other side, take some copper sponges plated with silver, press down to decrease volume and to add more per less volume. Tape it all together. Put and center that in some powered charcoal or carbon, which surrounds same except for the top where you connect the electrodes to (you don't want it to be too electrically conductive), within a PP or PE container. Now if you were to do alternating layers of this, would you want to use some silver wire going from the silver plated copper to silver plated copper, and then some silver wires going from the conductive hemp or linen + graphene fibers?
Also as for the layer that holds the electrolyte... The tissue, if holding more electrolyte yields more current and voltage potential then you shoukd look into magnesium carbonate... Gym chalk... I saw an experiment where a compressed block of this stuff was placed inside a container with 8 times the volume of water and weighted down until nearly all the water was absorbed by the block... Now when they removed the block it hadnt swollen in size or become soft... And when they broke inside the block all that water was contained in just a few mm at the bottom of the block... Surely electrolytes can be contained in such a medium
