Lithium-ion batteries are an established technology with recent large-scale batteries finding emerging markets for electric vehicles and household energy storage.
Lithium batteries (LBs) with a promising energy density and long cycling lifespan are widely applied in our daily life and are consequently considered to reconstruct future energy systems , , .
We must now consider alternative avenues of research in pursuit of a new breakthrough in this technology. This book collects authoritative perspectives from leading researchers to project the emerging opportunities in the field of lithium-ion batteries.
In part because of lithium’s small atomic weight and radius (third only to hydrogen and helium), Li-ion batteries are capable of having a very high voltage and charge storage per unit mass and unit volume. Li-ion batteries can use a number of different materials as electrodes.
Battery research during the past two decades has focussed on practical improvements to available batteries, such as cell design to enhance energy density, which are currently nearing their maximum potential. We must now consider alternative avenues of research in pursuit of a new breakthrough in this technology.
With sulfur’s abundance and relatively low atomic weight, Li-S batteries could be cheaper and lighter than Li-ion batteries with graphite anodes, but achieving this high energy density simultaneously with long cycle life remains a grand challenge for energy storage scientists and engineers.