New anode material could lead to safer fast-charging batteries

Researchers Haodong Liu and Ping Liu hold batteries made with the disordered rocksalt anode material they discovered, standing in front of a device used to fabricate battery pouch cells. Scientists at UC San Diego have discovered a new anode material that enables lithium-ion batteries to be safely recharged within minutes for thousands of cycles. Known as a disordered rocksalt, the new anode is made up of earth-abundant lithium, vanadium and oxygen atoms arranged in a similar way as ordinary kitchen table salt, but randomly. It is promising for commercial applications where both high energy density and high power are desired, such as electric cars, vacuum cleaners or drills. Currently, two materials are used as anodes in most commercially available lithium-ion batteries that power items like cell phones, laptops and electric vehicles. The most common, a graphite anode, is extremely energy dense—a lithium ion battery with a graphite anode can power a car for hundreds of miles without needing to be recharged. However, recharging a graphite anode too quickly can result in fire and explosions due to a process called lithium metal plating.