It likely won't be ready for your next vehicle purchase, but some researchers from Imperial College London say that this rather modest-looking piece of material could eventually do nothing short of change of the way that cars are powered. The material itself is still a bit of a mystery, as you might expect, but it's apparently able to store and discharge electrical energy, and (here's the real kicker) is strong and light enough to be used for a car's bodywork -- essentially making the car itself one giant battery. That would obviously open up a whole host of possibilities, including being used to complement traditional batteries for even longer runtimes, or being used on its own to make smaller and lighter vehicles. The applications also wouldn't necessarily be limited to cars, and the researchers specifically mention cellphones as another area that could see smaller and lighter (or longer-lasting) devices if the material is used. Let's get on that, shall we? Video demonstration after the break.
[Thanks, Clinton C]
posted February 5th 2010 2:12PM
Makes the Prius look like a freaking Hummer.
@JeremyDallasTX
I drive a hummer with a prius shell over it. it gets half the mileage as a hummer, but people think I'm eco-friendly!
@bolezhinkov: the real figures actually add up to about a fifth. yeah, an H2 gets around 10-12mpg and a current-gen Prius gets somewhere around 50mpg.
@JeremyDallasTX
Seems more like a capacitor than a battery. There is a difference. Both hold a charge, one chemically, the other via electric fields.
@Mike10010100
Isn't there another difference. Don't capacitors discharge proportionally to how much charge they have ie faster when full and slower as they discharge, wheras a power discharges at a constant rate? I'm no engineer though so I could be wrong. Don't want cars that perform differently at different charges.
I want this. When people try to scratch my car with their keys they get electrocuted and DIE.
@Ebonwumon
Or if they run into my car with a shopping cart again.
I just wish their handels would be made of plastic.
@Ebonwumon I pray for the teenager trying to get laid on the hood of his car... Ignorance would not qualify for bliss that day!
@Ebonwumon not the whole body of the car. It could be place underneath the hood or trunk. Doesn't have to be glued outside the panels
@Ebonwumon
now you sir have a great mind lol
How about roofing material to power your home?
@jgemmell That'd only be good if it also converted light into electricity..
Ouch, I'd hate to see the body work bill on that bad boy after a accident!
@GenericMessage
or what happened at the accident when the body battery split in halves and short across each other, you get a giant glowing metal shell which would be hard to put out
Doenst solve the problem of energy production.
@ipxnsv Our energy production 'problem' isn't a real problem at all. It's a political problem. We could have 'off the grid' solar systems on every home in America for the amount of money we have spent in Iraq.
@PerryAJ
I would love to have Saturn in my living room!
@Phoenix lmao, he meant photo-voltaic system, but I see what you did there
It doesn't scare anyone else that the car would be a massive capacitor? Having worked with medium sized capacitors for HID lighting, the idea of something that big discharging after a car accident scares the shit out of me!
If they can eliminate that risk, this will be awesome.
@PerryAJ
They eliminate the problem by simply having a switch to ground the material to something when it is compromised. The driver perhaps?
Sounds awesome, but wouldn't this carry an ungodly price tag? I mean... carbon fiber laminate over the entire car?
Put it on roofs where it snows to melt snow and help power the house?!
@wryker
It isn't a solar panel, or a heating element. It is a storage device (if it even works).
I think this tecknology could be used on much larger scales then cars and planes carbon fibre can be as strong as steel we could build intire self sufficient buildings out of this stuff
Skin this with solar cells and charge and store all in one device.
Hmmm it's going to have to be the inside material only or people will steal your juice =P
Phone running low --> head to a parked car.
Your car running low? Park it next to another car and attach some small and hard to see cables between them.
This would have been better if the main picture were one of the Flintstones' car.
Cake on the solar cells and you're good to go.
So, is that like if I lean on the car I will instantly be vaporized to nothing?
This has even more benefits as a perfect security system - akin to 007's BMW in "The World is Not Enough".
I must be missing something.
This guy is blathering about how great it will be to power things....so how does it get powered?
Rotation of the tires or a new belt system? Solar? Hamsters? Bad breath after a meatball sub sandwich?
This is nonsense. The whole car being a battery? I'd be impressed if they made a solar cell that can be painted over, and still harvest energy. That would be great. This is such a fail.
clothing batteries perhaps? throw on a mobile receptor and you got yourself a mobile phone tie!
@joshky
"Warning, battery powered clothes are known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects."
Makes making an IED much easier for terrorists...
so if you need a jump can you just steal some power from the car beside you with something like a metal pole?
So what happens when the car is in an accident? If it's anything like a Lithium polymer battery, it won't be pretty. Anyone remember the Pinto?
This will NEVER hit the market, in fact...the inventor of it probably already has assassination threats on him. The powers that be can never let this happen, so don't hold your breathe people.
I like the fact that if you get hit by lightning the charge would stay with the car? :D
this might not be more energy efficient, but it reduces the weight of the car by making the battery the bodywork.
@JW Yeah, so we would save....about 15 pounds. Whoopee.
@Showbiz
Not really. Electric car batteries are what I was talking about. The battery in a Tesla weighs 900 pounds. That is a big deal.
It appears to work of the static electricity generated by the car passing through the air. I don't think it will work on the roof of a house. Body repair could be the downfall of this product, but a very good idea. It looks like a manual switch to channel the built up energy to the battery/motor and that need to be an automatic function. I do believe it will work.
It appears to work off the static electricity generated by the car passing through the air. I don't think it will work on the roof of a house. Body repair could be the downfall of this product, but a very good idea. It looks like a manual switch to channel the built up energy to the battery/motor and that need to be an automatic function. I do believe it will work.
It appears to work off the static electricity generated by the car passing through the air. I don't think it will work on the roof of a house. Body repair could be the downfall of this product, but a very good idea. It looks like a manual switch to channel the built up energy to the battery/motor and that needs to be an automatic function. I do believe it will work.