Carbon fiber can store electrical energy and may halve the weight of an electric car

According to the British "Daily Mail" report, scientists found that carbon fiber as a super tough and lightweight material can directly store electrical energy, which may completely change the design of the future electric car, so that the weight of the car is halved.

carbon fiberCarbon fiber is currently used in many automotive materials, and new research has found that it can be used to store electrical energy while making the vehicle stronger and lighter. If the technology is put into commercial use, manufacturers can abandon heavy batteries and halve the weight of future cars.

Leif Asp, professor of materials and computational mechanics at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, studied the role of carbon fiber sheet as a reinforcing material. In this way, the body is more than just a load-bearing component, it can also act as a battery. Carbon fiber tubes can also be used for other purposes, such as collecting kinetic energy for sensors or conductors of energy and data. If all of these functions can be taken up by the car body or the aircraft fuselage, the weight can be reduced by up to 50%.

The researchers observed how different commercial carbon fiber structures store electrical energy well. Samples containing small crystals have good electro chemical properties - they can work like electrodes in lithium-ion batteries - but tend to be less strong. According to Professor Asp, this slight loss of stiffness is not a major problem, as weaker carbon fibers with good electrical properties are still stronger than steel.

He explained that for carbon fiber  applications in many areas such as custom composite tube, automobiles, a slight reduction in stiffness is not an issue. At present, the market is mainly expensive carbon fiber composite materials, and the hardness is tailor-made for the aircraft. As a result, carbon fiber producers can expand their range of applications to a large extent.


Post time: Mar-11-2019

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