Chinese Academy of Sciences Team Cuts Capacitor Production Time From 1 Hour to 1 Second for Lasers and EVs
- MM24 News Desk
- 15 hours ago
- 2 min read
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a revolutionary manufacturing technique that slashes the production time of a key energy storage component from over an hour to just one second. This breakthrough, using an ultra-fast flash heating and cooling method, enables the scalable production of high-performance dielectric capacitors critical for electric vehicles, high-power lasers, and directed energy weapons.
The team, led by scientists from the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with Shandong University and Xian Jiaotong University, achieved this by developing a "flash annealing" technique that heats and cools materials at a staggering rate of 1,000 degrees Celsius per second.
This rapid thermal process creates crystal films on silicon wafers almost instantly, compared to conventional methods that require anywhere from three minutes to an hour. Their findings were published on November 14 in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances.
"Unlike other methods that can take from three minutes to an hour depending on the product quality, the team’s flash annealing technique heats and cools at a rate of 1,000 degrees Celsius per second, allowing for rapid synthesis of crystal films on a silicon wafer in a heartbeat," reported the research team.
The resulting capacitors maintain a high energy density of 63.5 joules per cubic centimetre and demonstrate exceptional thermal stability, performing reliably at temperatures up to 250 degrees Celsius (482 degrees Fahrenheit).
This thermal resilience is crucial for applications in demanding environments. “This excellent thermal stability guarantees proper functioning of the device under extreme temperature conditions, including the hybrid electric vehicles (<140C) and the harsh environments of underground oil/gas exploration (<200C),” the team stated in their Science Advances paper.
The components showed less than 3 per cent performance degradation even under intense thermal cycling, making them suitable for aerospace applications with frequent temperature fluctuations.
The manufacturing process involves rapidly heating the film through electromagnetic induction before immersing it in liquid nitrogen for instantaneous cooling. This "quenching" action locks the material's crystal lattice into a high-energy state, resulting in superior energy storage capacity.
The team emphasized that their method is not only dramatically faster but also produces components with energy density comparable to those made with much slower, traditional methods.
While dielectric capacitors still offer lower overall energy density than lithium-ion batteries, their ability to release stored energy almost instantaneously makes them ideal for applications requiring intense, rapid power bursts.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences team believes their scalable, chip-integrated production method offers a viable industrial pathway, potentially revolutionizing how energy storage components are manufactured for next-generation technologies from electric vehicles to advanced military systems.
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