The following is a common SuperCapacitor and its main advantages are that you can charge it up super quickly and also discharge it super quickly which sounds awesome for certain applications. Only problem is that they can not store alot of energy; for example in direct comparison with such a common Li-Ion battery it is around 90 times less. So that means they can not be used as battery replacements.....yet, because I recently found this big boy on Ebay that claims to be a graphene supercapacitor with a whopping capacity of 21000 Farad.

If we do the math and I did, then the energy density of this thing comes close to those of Li-Ion and Li-Po batteries and even surpasses that of some Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries. It is crazy that a capacitor can do such a thing.

Capacitors were only held back by their limited capacity which is now a thing of the past if my graphene SuperCapacitor is real. To find that out I firstly visited the manufacturers website to learn more about it. But it seems like there really is no additional information available about this capacitor other than what they already send me along with it.

And by the way I got this thing for 185€ from Ebay. So I got to say having a non clickable datasheets symbol on their site was not a good start and if we mix that with the look of the cap that is like an over-sized LiPo battery and the fact that its max voltage is 4.2V which is also the max voltage for a LiPo battery, I got to say that I was skeptical.

And sadly testing for 20000 charge cycles was not possible as well as finding out the max current this thing could take and output because I am obviously always limited by the equipment I have lying around. But luckily I came up with two tests that should let me determine what we are looking at here and let's start with the first, more scientific one called Charge/Discharge test.

For that I simply build up my Battery Test setup and hooked up a normal SuperCapacitor which I then charged up and discharged with 5A of current. As you can see in the final graph, the voltage of the capacitor rises and then falls pretty linear meaning this technology stores energy at every voltage level.

Now let's compare that to a practical LiPo discharge curve which as you can see here falls pretty linear between 3.3V and 2.5V and afterwards crashes down super quickly. As a side note though this linear voltage region would usually be at a higher voltage level, but I feel like my tested battery was pretty dead at this point.

But either way; that means that most energy is stored in this linear voltage region and that is a pretty big difference between capacitors and lithium batteries. So after fully charging up my graphene SuperCapacitor it was finally time to have a look at its discharge curve as well and yes what I can say this looks just like the lithium battery curve.

So my next thought was that maybe this is a special hybrid capacitor type that just discharges differently. And luckily for me I had a lithium hybrid capacitor lying around from a previous video which I tested next for reference and sadly this thing also charged up and discharged in a linear fashion.

OK, so far it does not look good for the graphene cap; but I wanted to do the last test anyway just to be sure. You see SuperCapacitors do not react very aggressively when for example hammering an nail through them. They might smoke a bit and heat up; but overall they are pretty safe.

But a LiPo battery on the other hand loves to blow off some steam, create flames, lots of fumes and tons of heat which is not that safe. So I was expecting a similar behavior from the supposed graphene SuperCap; but to my surprise it didn't react at all even though it was partly charged up.

It was so safe that I was even capable of having a closer look inside and sadly at this point I have to admit that I am not a battery expert and thus I am not 100% sure if that is the structure of a LiPo battery or not. So all in all I can not 100% say what I was dealing here with but feel free to let me know what you think in the comment section below.

With that being said I hope you learned a bit about graphene and enjoyed the show. If so consider supporting me through Patreon to keep it going. As always don't forget to like, share, subscribe and hit the notification bell. Stay creative and I will see you next time.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enNow this is a common SuperCapacitor and itsmain advantages are that you can charge itup super quickly and also discharge it superquickly which sounds awesome for certain applications.Only problem is that they can not store alot of energy; for example in direct comparisonwith such a common Li-Ion battery it is around90 times less.So that means they can not be used as batteryreplacements.....yet, because I recently Ifound this big boy on Ebay that claims tobe a graphene supercapacitor with a whoppingcapacity of 21000 Farad.If we do the math and I did, then the energydensity of this thing comes close to thoseof Li-Ion and Li-Po batteries and even surpassesthat of some Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries.It is crazy that a capacitor can do such athing; but maybe it can not and I simply gotscammed here and this thing is just a relabeledbig Li-Po battery; since SuperCapacitors usuallylook a bit different.So in this video in order to clear thingsup, we will not only do some experiments withthe supercapacitor to find out what it reallyis; but I will also tell show why graphenecould be the future for energy storage solutions.Let's get started!INTROThis video is sponsored by JLCPCB, who cando it all and by that I mean there you canmake your schematic, design your PCB, sourcethe components and then let them assembleit all.This way you can save tons of time and moneyand speaking of money; click the link belowto get some coupons not only for their PCBAservice, but also 3D printing and CNC Service.So check them out today and be amazed by theirquality and fast delivery time.Now first off; what is this graphene stuffand why does every article on the internetand YouTube calls it the solution for ourcurrent electrical energy storage devices.Well, graphene is kind of like Graphite thatpretty much everyone is familiar with.But instead of being the crystalline formof the element carbon, that definitely comeswith some interesting electrical propertieson its own; graphene is just a 2 dimensionalsingle layer of carbon atoms arranged in anhexagonal structure.Needless to say that makes manufacturing itquite difficult; but on the pro side, thismaterial is the strongest, lightest, bestheat transferring one and also best electricallyconductive one that we know of, wow.But how exactly does it improve our supercapacitornow?I mean if we look at other more common oneswithout graphene and measure their volumeand weight, then we can easily figure outthat the graphene increased the energy densityby around 30 times which is an incredibleimprovement.Well, to find that out let's simply open upa common supercapacitor, which was not aseasy to do as I initially thought.But after 10 minutes I was in and all we canfind inside are the two terminals connectedeach to one long electrically conductive plateaka electrode that was covered in black stuff,another film for each terminal that is nonconductive which is the separator and someliquid stuff all around it aka the electrolyte.If we draw that up simplified then a supercapacitorlooks something like this and the way it storesenergy is that as soon as a voltage gets applied,the negative and positive charged ions inthe electrolyte gets drawn to the oppositecharged electrodes and thus an electrostaticfield gets created that represents the storedenergy.Now of course the bigger the surface areaof the electrodes, the more energy can getstored.But since there is obviously a physical sizelimit to a capacitor; they instead use thisblack stuff around the plates which is actuallyactivated carbon that is used to increasethe surface area.OK; this was the simplified way a supercapworks and what our graphene improvement nowwould do is replace the activated carbon toincrease the surface area even more, besidesof course adding some other advantages.So initially graphene SuperCaps sound super,but what makes them so much better than commonLithium Based batteries?Well, even though the structure of such batterieslook similar at first sight, this time youalways got an electrochemical reaction goingon to either store energy or release it.Needless to say chemical reactions alwayscome with more heat production meaning welose power, it takes a while aka is slow andthe metals in the batteries also get usedup.Meaning in the best case with Lithium IronPhosphate you can use them for around 5000cycles.Now compare that to my graphene SuperCapacitorwhose datasheet claims 20000 cycles; but thenagain its current capabilities of only 20to 40A seems low even though its internalresistance of around 1mohm should let it outputmuch more current like a capacitor can do.But before getting to that; here is an overviewof the differences between the two technologiesand like I said before Capacitors were onlyheld back by their limited capacity whichis now a thing of the past if my grapheneSuperCapacitor is real.To find that out I firstly visited the manufacturerswebsite to learn more about it.But it seems like there really is no additionalinformation available about this capacitorother than what they already send me alongwith it.And by the way I got this thing for 185€from Ebay.So I got to say having a non clickable datasheetsymbol on their site was not a good startand if we mix that with the look of the capthat is like an over-sized LiPo battery andthe fact that its max voltage is 4.2V whichis also the max voltage for a LiPo battery,I got to say that I was skeptical.And sadly testing for 20000 charge cycleswas not possible as well as finding out themax current this thing could take and outputbecause I am obviously always limited by theequipment I have lying around.But luckily I came up with two tests thatshould let me determine what we are lookingat here and let's start with the first, morescientific one, called Charge/Discharge test.For that I simply build up my Battery Testersetup and hooked up a normal SuperCapacitorwhich I then charged up and discharged with5A of current.As you can see in the final graph, the voltageof the capacitor rises and then falls prettylinear meaning this technology stores energyat every voltage level.Now let's compare that to a practical LiPodischarge curve which as you can see herefalls pretty linear between 3.3V and 2.5Vand afterwards crashes down super quickly.As a side note though this linear voltageregion would usually be at a higher voltagelevel, but I feel like my tested battery waspretty dead at this point.But either way; that means that most energyis stored in this linear voltage region andthat is a pretty big difference between capacitorsand lithium batteries.So after fully charging up my graphene SuperCapacitorit was finally time to have a look at itsdischarge curve as well and yes.....what Ican say this looks just like the lithium batterycurve.So my next thought was that maybe this isa special hybrid capacitor type that justdischarges differently.And luckily for me I had a lithium hybridcapacitor lying around from a previous videowhich I tested next for reference and sadlythis thing also charged up and dischargedin a linear fashion.OK, so far it does not look good for the graphenecap; but I wanted to do the last test anywayjust to be sure.You see SuperCapacitors do not react veryaggressively when for example hammering anail through them.OK, they might smoke a bit and heat up; butoverall they are pretty safe.But a LiPo battery on the other hand lovesto blow off some steam, create flames, lotsof fumes and tons of heat which is not thatsafe.So I was expecting a similar behavior fromthe supposed graphene SuperCap; but to mysurprise it didn't react at all even thoughit was partly charged up.It was so safe that I was even capable ofhaving a closer look inside and sadly at thispoint I have to admit that I am not a batteryexpert and thus I am not 100% sure if thatis the structure of a LiPo battery or not.So all in all I can not 100% say what I wasdealing here with but feel free to let meknow what you think in the comment sectionbelow.With that being said I hope you learned abit about graphene and enjoyed the show.If so consider supporting me through Patreonto keep it going.As always don't forget to like, share, subscribeand hit the notification bell.Stay creative and I will see you next time.