MIT’s New Battery Will Change The World
It’s cheaper, faster charging, longer lasting, safer and better for the environment than anything we currently have.
The future is battery-powered. All of our next-gen and planet-saving technology, like solar power and electric vehicles (EVs), require batteries to function. But as these brilliant pieces of technology become more widely adopted, we find that our current batteries aren’t quite up to the job. Lithium-ion, the most commonly used type of battery, is expensive, slow charging, bulky, fast to degrade, has a tendency to catch fire, and isn’t the kindest to the environment. Fortunately, MIT just created an entirely new type of battery that solves all of these issues in one fell swoop. So, is this the battery of the future? Or is there a catch?
When I say entirely new, I mean it. Every part of this battery uses different materials from anything currently available. Its electrodes (the parts at the ends of the battery which carry current into the circuit) are made from aluminium and pure sulphur rather than the complex metals and graphite electrodes of lithium-ion batteries. Its electrolyte (the part of the battery in the middle, which carries ions to and from the electrodes) is also different, being made of molten chloro-aluminate salts rather than the organic solution…
