Recent advances of graphene-based materials for high-performance and new-concept supercapacitors

Supercapacitors, with ultrahigh power density, superior rate capability, long-term cyclability, and exceptional safety, are regarded as one highly competitive candidate of electrochemical energy storage devices,filling the gap between batteries and conventional capacitors. Despite of tremendous effort, elaborated screening of high-performance electrode materials, e.g., graphene, is still intensively required. In this review, we describe the most recent progress in the research and development of graphene-based materials for high-performance and new-concept supercapacitors for the targeted applications in next-generation and smart electronics. First, the design and fabrication of high-performance supercapacitors, including electrical double layer capacitors, pseudocapacitors and hybrid supercapacitors, were summarized in term of the charge storage mechanism. Second, new-concept supercapacitors with multiple functionalities of high-voltage, fiber-shape, microscale and shape-diversity in order to fulfill the requirements of future electronics are reviewed. Accordingly, special emphasis is given to the structure-dependent-performance effects of pores, hybridization, dimensionalities of graphene-based materials on performance of supercapacitors, and tremendous potential of graphene-based planar micro-supercapacitors for the direct seamlessly integration with versatile micro-electronics. Finally, perspectives and challenges of graphene-based supercapacitors are briefly discussed.

Design and operation problems related to water curtain system forunderground water-sealed oil storage caverns

The underground water-sealed storage technique is critically important and generally accepted for the national energy strategy in China. Although several small underground water-sealed oil storage caverns have been built in China since the 1970s, there is still a lack of experience for large-volume underground storage in complicated geological conditions. The current design concept of water curtain system and the technical instruction for system operation have limitations in maintaining the stability of surrounding rock mass during the construction of the main storage caverns, as well as the long-term stability. Although several large-scale underground oil storage projects are under construction at present in China, the design concepts and construction methods, especially for the water curtain system, are mainly based on the ideal porosity medium flow theory and the experiences gained from the similar projects overseas. The storage projects currently constructed in China have the specific features such as huge scale, large depth, multiple-level arrangement, high seepage pressure, complicated geological conditions, and high in situ stresses, which are the challenging issues for the stability of the storage caverns. Based on years’ experiences obtained from the first large-scale （millions of cubic meters） underground water-sealed oil storage project in China, some design and operation problems related to water curtain system during project construction are discussed. The drawbacks and merits of the water curtain system are also presented. As an example, the conventional concept of “filling joints with water” is widely used in many cases, as a basic concept for the design of the water curtain system, but it is immature. In this paper, the advantages and disadvantages of the conventional concept are pointed out, with respect to the long-term stability as well as the safety of construction of storage caverns. Finally, new concepts and principles for design and construction of the underground water-sealed oil storage caverns are proposed.