Turnigy has launched Graphene batteries recentlyDel Boy wrote:Graphene Li-Po batteries already commercially available with massive C ratings to R/C world! About 30 volts and only 10 a/h but 180C! Using Li-Co polymer technology No where near F1 voltage/amp draw but probably possible.taperoo2k wrote:They'd have to find a way of shrinking them down to fit within an F1 car and ensure the changes are safe. However it's a moot point as the regulations stipulate the energy store be made up of batteries from what I recall, not read the rules in a while. So I could be wrong. I do expect that they will eventually use super capcitors in F1. Unless Graphene proves to be a wonder material then we will see rapid advances in electronics and battery technology. I suspect F1 will be an ideal test bed for graphene based technology due to the extreme environment in an F1 car.Del Boy wrote: I thought super capacitors were ten times the size of equivalent batts and although would solve charging cycle discharging problems, would create a packaging problem?
there´s a thread on RCGroups with beta testers explaining their perfomance, but if you´re interested be warned, it gets around 60-90 replies daily
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2592234
As a summary:
- Nobody believes they are true Graphene batteries, but they must have used it as some sort of coating
- Energy density has not improved, actually they weight a little bit more than traditional LiPo batteries
- The first noticeable improvement is voltage sag, wich is pretty similar to LiPo HV batteries (4,35v/cell instead of 4,2), wich is surprising. They handle very high loads really well
- The second improvement is lifespan, one of the testers claim he´s using one for more than 900 cycles when traditional LiPo batteries only last around 300 cycles.
- One of the testers also tested charging one on them always at 10C rate (if you know something about Lipo batteries, that´s mindblowing as Lipo batteries can´t be charged faster than 1C, 2C if they´re high C rating, and some people charge at 3C at their own risk. 10C is unbelieveble, fully charged in 6 minutes in theory) and discharging at 28-30C constantly for the whole battery lifespan, and it´s performing same as the rest, no prefomance degradation noticed
- They also noticed the discharge curve is flatter, wich is good as there´s no perfomance decrease when the battery is half discharged, but has the problem (for rc planes) of you must be alert and use reliable monitoring, because when the voltage finally drops at the end of the charge, there´s no time to land.
