The editors of the new open access journal Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy have selected the Best Paper among those published in 2013. The winning paper is "Self-standing electrochemical double layer capacitors for operation in severe temperature conditions," by authors Pierre-Louis Taberna and colleagues at the Université Paul Sabatier and at Thales Research and Technology, France. The authors will receive a $5,000 prize alongside this honour.
The prize is sponsored by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST). The paper presents the design of self-supported electrodes for small-size electrochemical double layer capacitors made of only multiwall carbon nanotubes, named buckypapers. These devices show great promise as energy sources for wearable electronic devices in extreme temperatures – between minus-50 and plus-100 degrees Celsius . The design involved the use of ionic liquids, which are "green" solvents, and make the production of these components better from an environmental standpoint.
Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy is an interdisciplinary open access journal focusing on all aspects of materials for the deployment of renewable and sustainable energy technologies. The journal is the result of a partnership between KACST and Springer, and is published within the SpringerOpen portfolio of publications. The journal does not levy an article publication fee from authors.
