Many people confuse supercapacitor and capacitor by thinking that a supercapacitor is just an improved capacitor.

In fact, it is a little bit true from an electronic point of view, but it is wrong from a technological point of view.

Indeed, a supercapacitor has the same characteristics of charge and discharge as a capacitor. Except we do not manage necessarily in the same way a 200V 100μF capacitor and a 2.7V 3000F supercapacitor. On the other hand, a supercapacitor is not designed in the same way as a ceramic capacitor or an electrolytic capacitor.

Read more No, a supercapacitor is not a capacitor

Eesha Khare, a 18 years schoolgirl educated in a school in Silicon Valley in California, won an award May 17 during the competition "Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2013" and received a $ 50 000 check for his supercapacitor project.

"A high school student creates a super capacitor to recharge a smartphone in 20 seconds." It is with such catchy title that some media announced the news. If the feat of the girl is real, it is an exaggeration to say that she has invented a sufficiently high performance supercapacitor to replace our Smartphone battery. The work of the young girl especially show that research on supercapacitors moving fast, and that in future they might advantageously replace some batteries.

Supercapacitors are kind of fastest batteries that can allow to recharge a smartphone in 20 to 30 seconds. It still lacks the supercapacitor to dethrone the batteries, it is a better energy density to last longer for a weight and a given volume (Recharge your phone in 20 seconds is not very interesting if need to recharge 2 or 3 times a day in return).

Read more A high school student enhances the capabilities of supercapacitors