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this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2025
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As far as I can tell battery research seems to consist of mixing every single element with lithium, and seeing if it makes a battery.
Followed by advertising it and never releasing the new tech.
This is more accurate than you would think. I've seen people synthesize a new inorganic compound, and is then more or less forced by supervisors to test it as an intercalation host for Li- or Na-ion batteries without really having thought through whether that makes sense at all.
Li is small, and as long as there is room for it (sites for it to sit when intercalated and paths to diffuse through the material), and there is some species that can accommodate the additional charge (as one Li+ is introduced into the material, there needs to be a charge compensation to maintain charge neutrality - typically this is a transition metal cation that is reduced from a higher oxidation state to a lower one). In that sense a lot of materials could serve as hosts, and depending on the intercalation potential, it could be used as a cathode (LiCoO2 for instance, where the intercalation potential vs. Li/Li+ is so high that it makes for a good cathode) or an anode (LTO for instance, where the intercalation potential vs. Li/Li+ is so low that it rather makes sense to pair it with a high potential cathode, and instead make for a more niche application where things such as safety is more coveted). That said, only three structure types have been widely used commercially as intercalation hosts for Li-ion batteries: layered rocksalt types (like LiCoO2 and its deriviates, NMC and NCA), spinels (LiMn2O4 or LTO) or olivines (LiFePO4, or LFP).
Li-S is not someone randomly mixing Li with some other elements though, it has been researched for a long time and is considered one of several "holy grails"
You aren't so far away from the truth!
To make a battery you need to have something that holds negative electrical charge and something with a positive electrical charge and both need to be able to change to a different state when you use it or reverse that change when you charge it.
Lithium is the lightest and smallest metal, meaning for the same size and electrical charge, your battery will weigh less.
Then you just need to find ways to make two kind of lithium compounds which have different electrical charge and can be changed between two states.
And if it doesn't explode when a child throws their battery powered bear on the ground, that would also be a good characteristic.
That’s because lithium is in the most electropositive group of elements and sodium/potassium are too reactive for current technology. Theoretically I think Na and K based batteries should perform better as they’re even more electropositive than Li.
(Forgive the spelling error in the picture but it was the simplest one I could find quickly)
What I'm hearing is throw some salt on a banana and power my phone for days.
I wasn't very good at chemistry.
It’s the difference in electronegativity that makes the battery. That’s why you see lithium and oxygen a lot; lithium doesn’t want electrons, oxygen does want them. Sodium and potassium are very close in electronegativity so the salty banana battery wouldn’t be good.
I’m waiting for the cesium / fluorine battery, should theoretically be awesome. Or extremely explosive
That's a much more serious and informative answer than I deserved.
Thank you for the explanation.
Gotta put my chemistry education to good use somehow, certainly not using it in the IT career I ended up getting in.
The other thing for lithium is that its light, VERY light, which of course is ideal for hand sets. Manufacturers love the light and slim designs even though consumers would prefer to have a handset that can go 7 days without a charge
Change lithium with Group IV elements and that's also how semiconductors are made: playing around with different impurities.
Flow batteries specifically don't use Lithium and are very promising in price to performance https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/03/flow-batteries-are-the-future-of-renewable-energy-and-australia-could-be-a-world-leader-if-theres-funding