Tomorrow's super battery for electric cars is made of...

Tomorrow's super battery for electric cars is made of rock.

https://techxplore.com/news/2024-06-tomorrow-super-battery-electric-cars.htmlAt DTU, researcher Mohamad Khoshkalam has invented a material that has the potential to replace lithium in tomorrow's super battery: solid-state batteries based on potassium and sodium silicates. These are rock silicates, which are some of the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. It is found in the stones you pick up on the beach or in your garden.

A great advantage of the new material is that it is not sensitive to air and humidity. This makes it possible to mold it into a paper-thin layer inside the battery.

Patented superionic material

The potential of the milky-white, paper-thin material based on potassium silicate is huge. It is an inexpensive, eco-friendly material that can be extracted from silicates, which cover over 90% of the Earth's surface. The material can conduct ions at around 40 degrees and is not sensitive to moisture.

This will make scaling up and future battery production easier, safer and cheaper, as production can take place in an open atmosphere and at temperatures close to room temperature. The material also works without the addition of expensive and environmentally harmful metals such as cobalt, which is currently used in lithium-ion batteries to boost capacity and service life