Hi freehold, No, it's not 10 x the life it's 10 x the capacity....

Hi freehold,
No, it's not 10 x the life it's 10 x the capacity. The current li ion tech dates back to 1991 with minor improvements along the way. Your quote of 400% expansion for silicon is correct but there is a work around using an anode that more resembles a sponge. This only expands by 30% and is acceptable. In the sketch below the sponge increases and the holes contract as the silicon absorbs the lithium ions.


"The silicon anode’s structure during lithiation (being recharged) and delithiation (discharge). You can see how the spongy gaps are smaller/filled in by lithiation.
The thing is, we’ve known about silicon’s excellent energy capacity for ages. The problem is, silicon absorbs so many ions that it physically expands to four times its original size. Lithium-ion batteries, which have to be tough and rigid (because they’re explosive), obviously can’t handle a component that regularly expands and contracts by such a huge margin. Now, however, researchers at the DOE’s PNNL have fabricated a silicon electrode that only expands by 30% rather than 400% — and 30% is workable, for commercial LIB designs."



"Amprius, a lithium-ion battery startup, is already shipping batteries with a silicon anode. Their energy density gains have been more modest (~10-50%), but it’s fairly clear by this point that silicon will probably be the next big breakthrough in LIB energy density, driving the mobile computing ever onward."

[all here]

As far as size goes this is the battery that Tesla uses.



Measures just 18 x 65mm and there are 7,100 of them connected in series and parallel to make one large battery.