The problem: Supercapacitors are an alternative to batteries that promise incredibly rapid charging times (think 10 minutes for an EV, and a minute for your phone), but the fact that they store less energy than typical batteries has kept them from being practical.
The solution: Researchers modelled how electricity moves in supercapacitors, which might be more energy-dense than previously thought. When electricity moves through a circuit, the current stays constant, known as Kirchhoff’s law. But particles in a supercapacitor go through a porous surface made up of thousands of holes, like a sponge soaking up water. So chemical engineers employed methods used to predict similar movements — like water molecules through a filter — and found that particles move more efficiently through the network of holes than Kirchoff's law predicts, making them a more attractive storage option.
Yes, but: Don’t expect super-fast phone chargers any time soon. The “missing link,” as the researchers describe it, was predicting how particles move — now engineers have to build something that can actually do it.