It is rightly said, “Small but mighty,” meaning thereby that it’s not always big things that have a powerful impact. Sometimes, small and light things can also become powerful things in the world. In a similar way, researchers have finally got their hands on a power suit for electric vehicles. This power suit has been unveiled by determined and diligent researchers at NASA and the University of Central Florida (UCF). Researchers have attributed this dynamic power suit as “as strong as steel and lighter than aluminum,” through which we can envision a picture of its prospective capabilities. This suit has varied applications in a wide variety of fields, including space crafts, and the aviation industry, particularly in aircraft, drones, and, of course, electric vehicles themselves.
This incomparable power suit is embodied by layered composite carbon having the main function of storing energy and thus acts as an energy-storing “supercapacitor” having a hybrid battery arrangement. A professor at UCF nanoscience technology center and the study co-author, Jayan Thomas, said, “Our idea is to use the body shells to store energy to supplement the power stored in batteries.” The advantage is that this composite can reduce the weight of your car and increase the miles per charge. It is as strong as or even stronger than steel, but much lighter. ”
The design of the power suit is made at the nanoscale level because when the nanoscale graphene sheets become connected with the carbon fiber layers, it will increase the charge storing capacity of the battery. However, when the positive and negative charged carbon fiber layers come with the connections in an alternating pattern, then the high energy density would be generated, thereby depositing metal oxides on the electrodes attached. Markedly, the result can be seen in the abrupt increase in speed from 0 to 60 mph in just 3 seconds when this supercapacitor is employed for electric vehicles.
Accidents can be mitigated but not completely avoided, for this reason, these power suits are considerably designed with those materials which are inflammable and are non-toxic, thus considering the safety of passengers if and only if a car accident takes place. Another co-author of this study has proposed a way for achieving the efficiency and optimal performance of the battery. He said, “Now in electric cars, the battery is 30 to 40 percent of the weight,” he says. “With this energy storing composite we can get additional mileage without increasing the battery weight. Whenever you decrease that weight, you can increase the range, so this has huge applications in electric cars and aviation.”
Keeping these specifications in mind, we can say that it’s a breakthrough for achieving efficiency in our vehicles. Another key thing to remember is that when nanoscale graphene sheets are used as a shell for the car’s structure, then the range of the car would be increased by 25% and a significant reduction would be observed in the overall weight of the vehicle.