Battery

A team from Cornell University has put forward a compelling example of what cheap, environmentally friendly energy storage can look like, fashioning a 3D electrode out of low-cost aluminum for a battery with a very long cycle life.

An MIT team has developed an electrolyte solution that can accommodate high-capacity lithium-metal battery chemistry, paving the way for electric cars and mobile devices that could last far longer on each charge.

Scientists at Chalmers University of Technology have been exploring alternative energy storage solutions and are now demonstrating a type of "massless" battery that could work as a power source and structural component of a vehicle at the same time.

A research team in the US has developed a prototype version of a solid-state battery that overcomes some of the key roadblocks in this area, demonstrating stable, high-capacity storage through the use of a novel, self-healing material.

By swapping out conventional materials for experimental ones scientists continue to make exciting advances in the performance of lithium batteries, and a team in Japan has just published research around a particularly promising one.

Scientists have made a breakthrough around how lithium-metal batteries function at ultra-low temperatures, building a version that relies on weak bonds in its electrolyte to offer unprecedented performance in the cold.

A research team in Japan has come up with a way of incorporating silicon into lithium battery anodes that overcomes the durability issues that have plagued such efforts so far, through tiny nano-scale arches that bring some much-needed strength.

A team at the University of Central Florida has put forward a seawater-based battery design that ticks some key boxes, by using seawater in place of flammable and toxic electrolytes and a new anode to improve durability.

Volkswagen has just opened a recycling plant for electric vehicle batteries that have reached the end of their life, where it hopes to recover the raw materials from the fully depleted devices, which can then be used to build brand new ones.

In 2019, we looked at an innovative battery for electric vehicles that could be charged in 10 minutes. The researchers behind it have now added a couple more desirable attributes, including a cost they say is on par with internal combustion engines.

Zinc-air batteries are great little energy storage devices, but they’re not usually rechargeable. Now a team led by the University of Münster has developed a new zinc-air chemistry that makes this type of battery more efficient and rechargeable.

Whether it is crafting the world’s fastest electrodes or building battery parts out of microwaved plastic, 2020 showed us just how imaginative scientists can be when it comes developing technologies for next-generation energy storage.