Batteries

For quantum batteries, the bigger the battery, the faster it charges. For the first time, team of scientists has now demonstrated the quantum mechanical principle of superabsorption that underpins quantum batteries in a proof-of-concept device.

With the capacity to store up to five times the energy of lithium-ion solutions, researchers have a keen interest in lithium-sulfur batteries, and a team at the University of Michigan has taken a step toward realizing their real-world potential.

Rubber might not seem like a great candidate for an electrolyte material in a battery, but Georgia Tech researchers have developed a new rubbery material with a high conductivity, which could make for safer electric vehicle batteries with longer range.

This year served up a stellar crop of battery advances that resulted from researchers thinking outside the box, reimagining these devices and the way they function. Let's take a look at the most creative and interesting examples.

Scientists have taken aim at inactive clumps of lithium that build up over a battery's lifetime and shown how they can be brought back to life to boost the performance of the device and potentially unlock next-gen designs with far greater densities.

Although there are now biodegradable single-use electronic devices such as environmental sensors, the batteries in those devices can still pose an ecological problem. That's why scientists have now created a fully biodegradable paper-based battery.

Developing pliable power sources to go with wearable electronics is an important field of research, and scientists have put forward an impressive solution they say could be the first ever battery that is both flexible and washable.

Needle-like growths called dendrites form on the electrode to hamper the performance of many promising experimental batteries, but a team at the University of Texas at Austin are putting forward a solution for a particularly eco-friendly one.

Researchers have produced an experimental lithium-ion cell with a novel electrode design featuring an "open and regular" crystal structure they say allows for charging at 10 times the speed of today's devices.

Scientists in China have come up with a new design for the membrane of redox flow batteries that solves some key shortcomings and takes the technology closer to realizing its potential as a storage solution for renewable energy.

Two promising avenues in the development of next-energy storage involve the use of lithium metal and an electrolyte that is solid rather than liquid, and new research brings these branches of battery research together in an exciting new breakthrough.

When battery packs in EVs reach the end of their useful lives, they can still retain enough charge for other applications. Nissan is replacing lead acid batteries in emergency power supplies at railroad crossings in Japan with second-life Leaf cells.