Capacitor with 'onion layer tech' to power gadgets

Washington: Scientists have invented a super capacitor using multi-layered design of onion. It is not only cheaper but also compact and powerful to power laptops and phones for many days.

"If you open any computer, you will see a lot of these small, cylindrical round capacitors," said Vadym Mochalin at Drexel University.

A capacitor will charge and discharge faster than a battery, which stores energy chemically and converts it into electricity. It will even last longer and have lesser weight. A super capacitor stores much more energy than any capacitor and is used to power small devices like model planes and helicopters. The presence of hexagen and TNT converts carbon contained in the molecules of explosives into a thin sheet of nanodiamonds.

The nanodiamonds were transformed into dozens or even hundreds of graphene layers, which can discharge up to 200 volts every second when charged in an organic electrolyte.