Profs Kymissis and Kinget in collaboration with Profs O'Brien, Couzis, Steingart, and Bannerjee from City University New York and Prof. Sanders from University of California Berkeley have been awarded an $1.6M ARPA-E grant entitled: "Metacapacitors: High Quality Printed Nanoparticle Capacitors with Built-In Switching." Details on the related ARPA-E program can be found here. The project will further receive matching funding from New York State through NYSTAR.
The project will develop a novel electrically insulating material for a new breed of capacitors that increases the capacitor's storage capability and allows for low-cost, efficient grid interfaces for applications from solid-state lighting to solar photovoltaics. The thin film capacitor can be printed in rolls similar to newspaper printing. Transistors are sealed into these capacitor films to form Metacapacitors. The resulting Metacapacitors are a flexible fabric for electrical power conversion.