CCTO Research

Two Texas State professors have made a fascinating discovery regarding energy storage.

Ingram School of Engineering doctors Raghvendra Pandey and William Stapleton have recently published a study in the journal of American Institute of Physics.  The two professors identified a material known as CCTO, or copper calcium titanate, as a valid energy storage material for the first time.  Their work was sponsored by the Air Force. Dr. Pandey talks about what exactly the Air Force wanted out of the research.

They had special tasks for us.  To look at this material and other materials that we wanted as a possible energy storage system that could store large amounts of energy in a small volume.
– Dr. Pandey

The material that they identified as the best was CCTO.  Efforts to use CCTO as an energy storage material in the past had failed for a variety of reasons, but the Texas State research team was able to succeed in getting the CCTO to hold energy. Here, Dr. Stapleton talks about what the study accomplished.

To put it simply, we’ve developed the manufacturing process and adjusted the parameters of that to maximize how well the CCTO works.
– Dr. Stapleton

CCTO can be used to hold a greater amount of energy in a smaller volume than its competitors.   This could allow it to be used in a variety of fields, including electric cars and green energy.

KTSW news, James Pineo.