While studying its optical properties, the eyes of Nick Smith, a graduate researcher at Penn State’s Materials Research Institute, popped wide open with his discovery of the extremely high insulating capacity of a high-grade, commercially available glass. The material’s ability to store about three times as much electrical energy as previously measured in bulk glass could telescope the time to develop several energy-efficient technologies.
“It is fairly novel to show that, as a family of materials, glass may be a good candidate for high energy applications,” Smith says. “Most people working in the field have been primarily looking elsewhere in polymers, nano-composites, and so forth.”
The high-grade glass used in Smith’s tests is manufactured by Schott Technologies. Applied to research Penn State is conducting for the Department of Energy and the Office of Naval Research, the high breakdown strength of the material could accelerate development of high-energy capacitors for breakthrough technologies, according to Michael Lanagan, Smith’s collaborator on the project. Possible applications include hybrid automobiles, solar cells, heart defibrillators, and other electronic technologies.
“These electric fields were significantly higher than anything we’d ever seen before,” Lanagan says. “So now you start thinking from the production or engineering side, what it would take to get this into a practical component.”
Lanagan says he’s hopeful that the technology could be used in hybrid vehicles in three years. The flat-panel industry is also likely to pay attention. “There is about $30 billion a year invested in the development of flat panel glass,” Lanagan says.
Source: Penn State Materials Research Institute, Nick Smith, Michael Lanagan
Writer: Joseph Plummer