Chapter 27 - Energy Storage from Dispersion Forces in Nanotubes

Abstract

A novel approach leading to potentially extremely high-density energy and power storage is proposed based upon the energy exchange between the dispersion force field in an assembly of aligned telescoping nanotubes and the electrostatic field produced by an external voltage source biasing such nanostructures with respect to a facing electrode. We show that the retraction of a telescoping core into the outer nanotube shell in quasi-equilibrium results in the conversion of energy stored in the van der Waals field of the system into an electric current along with heat dissipated into the environment. On a macroscopic scale, the combined effect of the large effective areas and dominant dispersion force magnitudes typical of nanotubes makes such an implementation quite competitive as a storage system, conservatively capable of energy densities ∼1–3×102W·h/kg, depending on the particular class of nanotube employed, and with power densities in principle limited only by the dynamical response of the driving electronics. Additionally, since the mechanism of energy storage and release is ultimately related to quantum–electrodynamical dispersion interactions, the system charge and discharge time profiles can be directly addressed by the user on the nanoscale and are not limited by the electrochemical processes.