Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been recognized at the 2025 R&D 100 Awards, which annually honor the most significant innovations in science and technology worldwide, for developing HyPoCap.
Hyper-porous carbon design of HyPoCap narrows the gap between batteries and supercapacitors, opening new possibilities for EV energy storage.
This new hyperporous carbon material could significantly advance the performance of supercapacitors. The material exhibits three times higher energy density than today’s state-of-the-art commercial carbons, opening the door for broader use of supercapacitors in electric vehicles (EVs) and other energy storage applications.
HyPoCap is prepared under relatively mild temperatures using sodium amide as the activation agent, resulting in oxygen-rich carbon with ultra-high surface area. ORNL reports specific capacitance values above 600 F/g and a surface area exceeding 4,000 m²/g.
By combining high porosity with pseudocapacitive oxygen groups, the material stores more energy per unit mass while maintaining the fast charge-discharge characteristics that make supercapacitors attractive for transportation and grid applications.
While lithium-ion batteries dominate EV energy storage, supercapacitors excel at providing quick bursts of power and enduring hundreds of thousands of cycles without significant degradation.
“Since cars have very limited space and supercapacitors have lower energy density than Li-ion batteries, new materials such as HyPoCap having much higher energy density are important for the wide application of supercapacitor in vehicles,” said Tao Wang, Staff Associate in the Nanomaterials Chemistry Group, Chemical Science Division at ORNL.
Supercapacitors are already finding niche automotive uses. The Lamborghini Sian FKP 37 integrates a supercapacitor to boost acceleration alongside its V12 engine. In public transit, where vehicles have more space for energy storage, ultracapacitor buses have been commercialized.
In Serbia, Belgrade’s public transport operator launched the first bus line powered solely by supercapacitor buses from Chinese manufacturer Higer. Similarly, Chariot Motors introduced ultracapacitor buses in Sofia, Bulgaria, where testing confirmed exceptionally low energy consumption.
Following successful pilots, Sofia deployed 45 units between 2020 and 2021. In Austria, Graz operates buses equipped with 24 to 32-kWh supercapacitors, using short intermediate charging to sustain service. With HyPoCap, ORNL’s researchers see the potential to extend these use cases further.
By narrowing the gap between the energy density of supercapacitors and batteries, HyPoCap could enable more compact designs for cars and greater efficiency for buses and trucks, while preserving the fast response and durability that make supercapacitors ideal for regenerative braking and high-power demands.
The project reflects ORNL’s integration of machine learning in materials discovery, which helped predict the optimal pore structure and oxygen content for maximizing energy storage. The lab’s approach not only achieved record-setting performance but also demonstrated a more energy-efficient synthesis pathway than conventional activation methods.
According to Wang, higher energy density combined with fast charging and long cycle life could help supercapacitors complement batteries in EV and grid applications.
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