PostTime：3/31/2022
Recently, the patent titled “Electrode for Supercapacitor, Preparation Method and Use Thereof” has been granted to GTIIT in the US and received the notice of allowance. Professor Daniel Tan is the first name inventor. This is GTIIT’s first overseas patent and the first Invention Patent.
By December 2021, there is 1 national patent granted by the State Intellectual Property Office to GTIIT and 13 patents at the examination stage, five among which are international patents. The number of total patent filings in 2021 has increased by 75%.
“The patent is an electrode for supercapacitor. It has great importance to develop electrode material which can be used for preparing capacitors with energy density and good cycle stability,” Professor Tan said. In the Dielectric and Electrochemical Lab, he was explaining the principle of this invention to the student. He told us that it is related to the field of electrochemistry and can be applied to the fields of aerospace, automobile industry, consumer electronics and so on.
A supercapacitor, also called an electrochemical capacitor can recover energy from many repetitive processes, such as vehicle braking or wind turbine pitch systems. In addition, the supercapacitor has been successfully applied to the fields of national defence, aerospace, automobile industry, consumer electronics, communication, electric power, railway and the like, because it has many advantages such as high capacity, high energy density, high charge-discharge current and long cycle lifetime. Its applications are still expanding.
In a conventional supercapacitor, the apparatus operating voltage usually ranges from 2.5 to 3 V and is also the breakdown voltage thereof. As the electrolyte charges are further consumed, the electrolyte is further degraded, resulting in reduced capacitance, increased impedance, reduced energy density, as well as shortened supercapacitor lifetime.
According to prof. Tan, the new electrode weakens the issues of the interface between the electrolyte and the electrode surface by providing a coating layer on the surface of the active layer and the operating voltage window and capacitance of the electrochemical container can be further significantly increased.
This project is GTIIT’s first US patent and the first Invention Patent. It has been granted to GTIIT in US and received the notice of allowance.
“The black part is the electrode,” prof. Tan showed a sample in the Computational Materials Science Lab.
In the lab, a machine was testing the capacity and lifetime of the electrode. “GTIIT attaches great importance to students’ innovation and entrepreneurship. As the researchers, we build up our research team and labs accordingly.” Daniel Tan is a professor of Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, he was also appointed as the professor of GTIIT as the Deputy Head of Materials Science and Engineering. He said that the patent was developed for four to five years and is now in cooperation with some companies in the country.
GTIIT’s first patent granted by the State Intellectual Property Office is “Soil Heavy Metal Remediation Device”. “GTIIT’s patent portfolio is increasing rapidly, with patents granted and pending in China and overseas.” Mr. Raanan Adin, Senior Consultant to Vice-President for Innovation and Industry Relations, introduced that in 2021, Guangdong Technion Technology Entrepreneurship Center (GTEC) was established. GTEC is responsible for 4 main functions:
Identify research results that have commercial value, register them as patents and find industries that can use them;
Collaborate with industry in research and development projects;
Support innovation through accelerator and incubator programs;
Educate and encourage innovation and entrepreneurship by training and consulting to industry and government.
In December 2021, 9 projects from GTIIT teachers and students focused on low-carbon, scientific and technological intelligence, etc. had a great performance in the China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair (CIEF) 2021. GTIIT has had 7 technical cooperation projects with industries and signed 3 Memoranda of Cooperation on Innovation Platforms. There were 25 outstanding teachers and researchers selected as the “2021 Guangdong Enterprises’ Science and Technology Commissioners”, accounting for 40% of those in Shantou. Besides, GTIIT has made new breakthroughs in constructing research platforms. In 2021, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Materials and Technologies for Energy Conversion undertaken by GTIIT becomes the first provincial-level research platform being recognized by the Guangdong Provincial government.
Text/Photos: Shantou Media Group
