Recently, supercapacitor technology has achieved several breakthroughs. According to the latest foreign media reports, researchers from two British universities have discovered a new supercapacitor material that can not only shorten charging time to less than 10 minutes but also increase energy density to 180Wh/kg, higher than the current 100-120Wh/kg commonly found in lithium batteries. According to domestic media reports, in January of this year, Professor Xia Hui's research group at the Gleite Nanotechnology Institute of Nanjing University of Science and Technology also discovered a new material that can increase the capacity of supercapacitors by 5-10 times. The research results were published in the world's top journal, *Advanced Materials*. Supercapacitors using this material can have their capacity increased by 5-10 times, and their battery life extended accordingly by 5-10 times. Researchers say that the new material could be used in electric buses and other applications within two to three years.
Industry insiders believe that current commercially available supercapacitors mostly use activated carbon electrodes, resulting in limited energy storage capacity. Even high-end supercapacitors only have a capacity per kilogram that is 1/12 that of lithium batteries, which restricts their widespread application. However, with technological breakthroughs in capacitor materials, the supercapacitor market is expected to experience explosive growth. Industry forecasts predict that my country's supercapacitor market will reach 7.1 billion yuan by 2018 and 11 billion yuan by 2020.
