Re: Nanotube Supercapacitors

From: John Larkin (jjSNIPlarkin_at_highTHISlandPLEASEtechnology.XXX)
Date: 02/18/05 

Date: 18 Feb 2005 16:12:50 GMT

On 18 Feb 2005 04:22:52 GMT, jsn@panix.com (John S. Novak, III) wrote:

>
>In article <cv13td01pb8@enews3.newsguy.com>, John Larkin wrote:
>> On 16 Feb 2005 04:52:24 GMT, manofsan@yahoo.com wrote:
>
>>>Nanotubes break records for supercapacitor performance:
>>>http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=7287
>>>Will this finally make electric cars economical? Will batteries go
>>>obsolete?
>
>> "Could be manufactured from carbon nanotubes"
>
>> sounds awfully speculative to me.
>
>Oh, c'mon, John. Sounds like you didn't bother to read the article.

Well, most of it.

>I did. It's "awfully speculative," yes, in the sense that these
>things aren't on the shelves or might not take off due to the vagaries
>of market capital.

Or to the laws of Physics, which can be almost as demanding.

> But, having read the paper, I can say that it's
>not as speculative as you're trying to make it sound.

Two issues:

1. Seems that every researcher who makes some obscure measurement
includes wild speculation on applications, the favorites being a
breakthrough in energy production or a cure for cancer. I think they
do it to get publicity for work that nobody would otherwise notice.

2. Electrostatic energy storage will *never* approach chemical storage
in energy density or cost, by orders of magnitude. That's wired into
the physics.

>
>The paper isn't an idea paper, it's an experimental results paper.
>That means Du, et al., actually went and built the damned thing in the
>fabrication lab, walked it down the hall to the test lab and measured
>it with the favorable results reported therein.
>
>(On the other hand, no, they're not going to replace batteries.
>That's just silly.)

So if they'd left out the silly speculation, their paper would be more
"scientific."

Consider how many energy/cancer/nanofab breakthroughs have been
celebrated in this ng alone in the last few years. And then consider
how many have progressed to within telescope range of being practical.
It's not a pretty sight.

John

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