Lithium-ion

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 out of the Chinese University of Hong Kong have used a polymer commonly found in skin cream as a stabilizing agent for an aqueous lithium-ion battery, keeping costs and toxicity low and creating a stable voltage for common usage.

California's Enevate says it's managed not only to achieve an incredibly fast-charging solution for lithium-ion EV batteries, but one that handily boosts energy density as well. Using silicon anodes, it could give you 250 miles of range in 5 minutes.

A new ultrasound device developed at US San Diego offers a solution to a key roadblock when it comes to lithium metal batteries, by using sound waves as a way of preventing dangerous growths that cause them to catch fire and fail.

Described as a “dream material,” lithium metal could give lithium-ion batteries a huge boost but safely integrating it has proven problematic. Scientists have now come up with a new design that avoids these issues and stops it going up in flames.

Lithium-ion batteries degrade over time, but there are ways you can make them last longer. A team at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, has put together a list of best practices to preserve the life of lithium-ion batteries as long as possible.

In a quest for safer lithium-ion batteries, a team of engineers at the University of Illinois have come up with a solid polymer-based electrolyte that can not only heal itself but is recyclable without the need for high temperatures or strong acids.

Researchers at Australia's Deakin University say they've managed to use common industrial polymers to create solid electrolytes, opening the door to double-density solid state lithium batteries that won't explode or catch fire if they overheat.

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists for the invention and development of the lithium-ion battery.

Batteries have become much more efficient, but gauging their service life is still extremely difficult and time-consuming. To better predict how long a battery will last, MIT and Toyota have teamed up to employ artificial intelligence to accurately determine battery life without years of testing.

Engineers have developed a new type of hybrid cathode for a lithium-sulfur battery that seems to boast better energy density than existing versions of both lithium-ion and lithium-sulfur batteries.

It what seems like a paradox, engineers have been blowing up batteries in hopes of cleaning up space debris. In a series of severe "abuse" tests at the test bunkers of France’s CEA, lithium-ion batteries were tortured to better understand catastrophic battery failures and prevent battery explosions.