3 ms·
Dust-sized supercapacitor packs the same voltage as a AAA battery
- detaro 5y agoWhy is voltage a relevant benchmark here? Is there something about shrinking supercaps so small that makes maintaining voltage capability difficult? In this range I would have expected that to be just a usual tradeoff dimension that's not particularly worthy of mention.
- dTal 5y agoAlso AAA has the same voltage as the more common AA - 1.5 volts. So the wording is strange.
- emrah 5y agoYes, as the size of the capacitor shrinks, the plates get closer and it becomes harder for the dielectric to maintain charge (hence voltage) without arcing. Btw they are talking about supercapacitors which are a specific kind of capacitor that is more like a battery: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercapacitor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercapacitor
- upofadown 5y agoSince this is a capacitor they probably actually mean the maximum voltage. Typical commercial supercapacitors have something like a 2.5V maximum voltage. When told that the capacitor in question had a 1.5V maximum voltage the person writing the article probably tried to make the value relatable. They likely didn't know that the maximum voltage of a capacitor and the nominal output voltage of a battery are fundamentally different sorts of things.
- lgats 5y agoSame voltage as a AA, C and D-sized battery
- BenjiWiebe 5y agoWas posted 2 days ago as well. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28296337 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28296337
- ChrisLomont 5y agoAlso, lots of single atoms also pack the same voltage as an AAA battery. (It's why an AAA battery has the voltage it does). Size to voltage is irrelevant. It's a potential. Current or total stored energy is much more interesting.
- kolinko 5y agoNot a word about the capacity…