US university charges on with ‘power suit’ as a new battery for electric cars, spacecraft

Professor Jayan Thomas shows one of the carbon fiber/graphene rechargeable batteries with a photovoltaic panel, that his team is working on at the NanoScience Technology Center at the University of Central Florida. — Orlando Sentinel/TNS

ORLANDO, Florida: University of Central Florida scientists are charging on with an experimental battery capable of reinventing how automobiles and spacecraft are made.

By reworking the idea of energy sources, a UCF research group is creating a lightweight battery that would double as the outer shell of a vehicle in what the group is calling its “power suit” project.