Lifting the lid on silicon batteries

Resolving the mystery of what happens inside batteries when silicon comes into with lithium could accelerate the commercialisation of next-generation high capacity batteries, for use in mobile phones and other applications. Using this technique will help make battery design much more systematic, and less trial and error - Ken Ogata Next-generation batteries based on silicon have come one step closer to commercial reality, after the mystery surrounding what is happening inside batteries when silicon comes into with lithium has been understood in unprecedented detail. Silicon-based technology would greatly expand the capacity of the batteries used in mobile phones, electric vehicles and other applications. Using a combination of nanotechnology and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques, researchers have developed a new probing system that gives a view into what is happening inside the batteries at the atomic level, enabling greater control over the properties of the materials. Silicon has been proposed as a replacement for carbon in battery anodes (negative electrodes) for the past 20 years, as it has roughly ten times more storage capacity than carbon. However, difficulty in managing silicon's properties has prevented the technology from being applied at scale. The primary problem with using silicon in a lithium-ion battery is that silicon atoms absorb lithium atoms, and the silicon expands up to three times in volume, degrading the battery.