“Water-in-salt” electrolytes can make lithium-ion batteries safer

Mountain Lion may be unduly sapping the life from some portable Macs' batteries. (credit: Waleed Alzuhair)

Lithium-ion batteries are rechargeable, have a high energy storage capacity, and exhibit minimal loss of charge when not in use. In our day-to-day lives, we enjoy the benefits of this technology. We have e-readers that can last on battery power for weeks at a time and cell phones that do not need to be charged daily.

Yet lithium-ion battery adoption has remained constrained due to concerns over safety, cost, and environmental impact. Recently, an interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers tackled one of these issues by developing a significantly safer lithium-ion battery.

Past safety concerns have focused on the electrolytes used in these batteries, which help transfer charge between the electrodes. These electrolytes are often highly flammable, reactive with other battery components (like the electrodes), and depend on highly toxic materials (lithium salts) to shuttle the charges. These safety concerns impose costly processing steps during fabrication of the batteries and limit their range of applications.

Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments