Supercapacitors offer faster charging and discharging, longer lifetimes, and improved safety compared to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), but their fundamentally lower energy density — driven by surface-only charge storage rather than electrochemical intercalation — means they are. Supercapacitors offer faster charging and discharging, longer lifetimes, and improved safety compared to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), but their fundamentally lower energy density — driven by surface-only charge storage rather than electrochemical intercalation — means they are. Supercapacitors offer faster charging and discharging, longer lifetimes, and improved safety compared to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), but their fundamentally lower energy density — driven by surface-only charge storage rather than electrochemical intercalation — means they are unlikely to replace. Engineers have unlocked a new class of supercapacitor material that could rival traditional batteries in energy while charging dramatically faster. By redesigning carbon structures into highly curved, accessible graphene networks, the team achieved record energy and power densities—enough to. Credit: Engineers have unveiled a breakthrough carbon-based material that enables supercapacitors to store as much energy as traditional batteries while delivering power far more rapidly. Shutterstock A new graphene supercapacitor stores battery-level energy and recharges instantly, redefining fast. Recent advancements in supercapacitor technology have garnered significant attention due to their possible applications in next-generation energy-storage systems. Supercapacitors also work in very low temperatures, where conventional batteries often struggle. Supercapacitors. Researchers at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratory for Material Science and Technology, are developing industrial-scale graphene-based supercapacitors with higher energy density and conductivity than current carbon-based designs. The goal is to offer roll-to-roll printable electrode technology.