The boom in phones, laptops and other personal devices over the last few decades has been made possible by the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery, but as climate change demands more powerful batteries for electric vehicles and grid-scale renewable storage, lithium-ion technology might not be enough.
The boom in phones, laptops and other personal devices over the last few decades has been made possible by the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery, but as climate change demands more powerful batteries for electric vehicles and grid-scale renewable storage, lithium-ion technology might not be enough.
Lithium-metal batteries (LMBs) have theoretical capacities an order of magnitude greater than lithium-ion, but a more literal boom has stymied research for decades.
“A compounding challenge that further doomed the first wave of LMB commercialization in the late 1980s was their propensity to explode,” UChicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Prof. Chibueze Amanchukwu wrote in a recent study.
That study, published Nov. 9 in Matter, outlines a way around this decades-old problem, using solvent-free inorganic molten salts to create energy-dense, safe batteries, opening new possibilities for EVs and grid scale renewable energy storage.
Read more at University of Chicago
Image: New research from the lab of Asst. Prof. Chibueze Amanchukwu outlines a way to use solvent-free inorganic molten salts to create energy-dense, safe batteries, opening new possibilities for EVs and grid scale renewable energy storage. (Credit: Photo by John Zich via University of Chicago)
