Energized Composites for Electric Vehicles: A Dual Function Energy‐Storing Supercapacitor‐Based Carbon Fiber Composite for the Body Panels

Abstract

The current electric vehicles (EVs) face many challenges like limited charge capacity, low miles/charge, and long charging times. Herein, these issues are addressed by developing a dual‐function supercapacitor‐based energy‐storing carbon fiber reinforced polymer (e‐CFRP) that can store electrical energy and function as the structural component for the EV's body shell. This is achieved by developing a unique design, vertically aligned graphene sheets attached to carbon fiber electrodes on which different metal oxides are deposited to obtain high‐energy density electrodes. A high‐strength multilayer e‐CFRP assembly is fabricated using an alternate layer patterning configuration of epoxy and polyacrylamide gel electrolyte. The e‐CFRP so developed delivers a high areal energy density of 0.31 mWh cm–2 at 0.3 mm thickness and a high tensile strength of 518 MPa, bending strength of 477 MPa, and impact strength of 2666 J m–1. To show its application in EVs, a toy car's body panel is fabricated with e‐CFRP and the toy car is able to operate using the energy stored in its frame. Moreover, when integrated with a solar cell, this composite powers an Internet of Things device, showing its feasibility in communication satellites.

Flexible solid-state hybrid supercapacitors for the internet of everything (IoE)

“…10(e). 152 Nardekar et al utilized the bifunctional properties of MoS 2 quantum sheets (QSs) for smart gadgets as a power source via fabricating FSHSCs as an energy storage device and triboelectric nano-generator (TENG) with a MoS 2 QS-based charge-trapping interfacial layer as the energy harvester, as illustrated in Fig. 10(f).…”

“…The various composites for flexible solid-state electrodes used in the FSHSCs are listed in Table 1. 85,[138][139][140][141][142][144][145][146][149][150][151][152]155,[159][160][161][162][163][164][165][166][167][168][169] Although different yarn-and sheet-type FSHSCs described above have expanded our portfolio of these devices for wearable devices, the interdigitated micro-structure FSHSCs will become the EES of the future miniaturized, flexible, and wearable electronic devices. These are discussed in detail in the next section.…”

Graphene Properties, Synthesis and Applications: A Review

“… 137 Electrophoretic deposition Graphene nanosheets Tensile strength 518 MPa, and bending strength 477 MPa Supercapacitor Ref. 138 Mechanical exfoliation Graphene flakes Mobility 130,000 cm 2 /Vs Spintronics Ref. 139 CVD Monolayer graphene (0.34 nm) On/Off ratio 1.02 × 10 5 Transistor Ref.…”

Design Optimization of Energy‐Storing Hybrid Supercapacitor Composite for Electric Vehicle's Body Panel

“…Hence, continuous degradation of mechanical properties is observed. The elastic modulus of laminas decreases progressively by 1.5% as the patch sizes increase based on the following equation [4,7,10]…”

“…Carbon fiber/epoxy composite Glass fiber/epoxy composite [17] Longitudinal and transverse elastic modulus (E The progressive reduction in the stiffness with the increased EcA area is mainly due to the continuous reduction in the elastic modulus of the composite, as explained earlier. [4] The simulation is stopped at the first significant reduction in load values, indicating the initiation of damage in the composite material. Jarrah et al [21] observed similar behavior of the load-displacement curve in the tensile test of composite laminates of CFRP and GRFP.…”