.Recent research by Professor Saiful Islam at Oxford Materials and Dr Kit McColl at Bath University provides important new atomic-scale insights into high energy density battery materials, as published in Nature Materials*.
The rechargeable lithium-ion battery has been instrumental in powering the global revolution in portable electronics. Indeed, many of you are reading this news piece on a mobile phone, laptop or tablet computer that relies on such technology. Now the need for more powerful lithium batteries in electric vehicles (EVs) for a low carbon future has never been greater.
One of the main avenues being explored is lithium-rich materials (so called O-redox cathodes) which can store additional charge on the oxygen ions, thus increasing energy density by up to 50%. These materials, however, lose energy density during cycling due to nanoscale structural changes, which are not fully understood.