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Battery-like device made from water and clay could be used on Mars

A new supercapacitor design that uses only water, clay and graphene could source material on Mars and be more sustainable and accessible than traditional batteries

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

24 October 2024

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

The new supercapacitor could be assembled from Martian materials

NASA

When pushed into the smallest of cracks, water can be used in unexpected ways. A new battery-like device that relies on tiny amounts of water confined within layers of clay could eventually offer sustainable power in places as extreme as Mars.

Vasily Artemov at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and his colleagues built the supercapacitor, a type of battery-like energy storage device, with components similar to those of conventional batteries, including two electrodes, one with a negative and one with a positive charge. But instead of making these electrodes out of…

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