Battery

Despite advances in new battery designs, good old lithium-ion batteries are still the frontrunner. There’s plenty of room for improvement though, and now researchers have identified a new cathode coating that could make them safer and longer lasting.

Researchers claim to have developed a new battery that mixes the best of both liquid and solid batteries. The new design is the first all-liquid-metal battery that can operate at room temperature, and it apparently outperforms lithium-ion batteries.

Researchers have developed a new electrode component for vanadium redox flow batteries that is said to outperform current solutions, thanks to the inclusion of an ingredient found in shrimp shells called chitin.

Using silicon as the anode could significantly increase the energy density of lithium-ion batteries, but maintaining that capacity has proven a problem. Now scientists in Korea have come up with a solution by "pre-loading" the electrode.

Scientists at Brown University are reporting a new material that overcomes some of the key hurdles of solid-state batteries, using a delicate mix of ceramics and the wonder material graphene to produce the toughest solid electrolyte to date.

An international team of scientists has found antimony crystals spontaneously hollow out during charge-discharge cycling, which could enable lithium ion batteries to hold far more energy without sacrificing battery lifetime.

Among the promising alternatives to today's energy storage technologies are lithium-sulfur batteries, though they tend to quickly degrade and die. A new design promises to change that through the integration of a rare metalloid called tellurium.

A new technology out of Purdue University is a shining example of using green tech to craft next-gen batteries, with scientists using a common form of plastic waste to craft a key component through the use of standard household microwave technology.

As electronic devices shrink batteries are becoming too heavy and inefficient for some uses. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new type of robot that powers itself by “eating” metal from its environment.

Bacteria that produce their own electricity could be useful in batteries, but so far, attempts have been inefficient. A new “biohybrid” system is built around a hydrogel and can support the microbes while effectively collecting their energy.

A new type of experimental proton battery is built with entirely organic components, making it much more environmentally friendly than most. On top of that, it can also be charged in a matter of minutes and can function at very low temperatures.

There’s plenty of ambient radiation just floating around in the air, and now MIT researchers have laid out the blueprints of a system that could tap into this wasted energy source and use it to charge electronic devices.