Batteries

The race for a better li-ion battery cathode has many entities scrambling for just the right mix of materials. Johnson Matthey has an energy-dense formula it believes superior and will test it in the high-demand laboratory of electric car racing.

Material scientists have taken a step forward in the development of lithium-metal batteries, demonstrating how applying a very specific amount of pressure during cycling can prevent the formation of growths that would otherwise bring them undone.

Through first-of-a-kind observations, researchers have gained new insights into the reasons why lithium batteries with silicon anodes quickly fail, and uncovered clues as to how this swift deterioration might be avoided.

The lithium-ion batteries at the heart of our transport future don't last forever, and researchers expect a massive influx of depleted units in the coming decade. A new breakthrough, however, could streamline our efforts to recycle them.

A new battery design out of Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials promises to open up some interesting possibilities in energy storage, by mimicking the behavior of snake scales to be bent and stretched out of shape.

A newly developed architecture places two promising battery innovations within the one device to form an all-solid-state device that is safe, long-lasting and has the potential to store large amounts of energy.

German outfit Mahle has teamed up with battery-maker Allotrope Energy to put forward a new lithium-carbon battery for electric vehicles that they claim is capable of recharging an electric moped in as little as 90 seconds.

Scientists in Australia have come up with a new design for lithium sulfur batteries that involves adding a sugar to address inherent stability issues, a move that keeps the experimental cells ticking across more than 1,000 cycles.

A Dutch company is deploying an innovative battery-swapping container ship on the country's inland shipping routes to take a bite out of the sector's sizable carbon emissions, setting sail for the first time this week carrying cargo for Heineken.

Stanford University scientists experimenting with a decades-old, single-use battery architecture have led the development of a version that is not only rechargeable, but offers around six times the capacity of today's lithium-ion solutions.

Graphene is already shaping the future of battery technology in some interesting ways, and now scientists have deployed a novel form of the wonder material in a sustainable sodium battery to bring about a tenfold increase in capacity.

A team in Germany has just taken an important step forward in energy storage research, demonstrating a lithium-metal battery with a remarkable energy density of 560 Wh/kg and an ability to retain its performance across hundreds of cycles.