As electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies scale rapidly, replacing fossil fuels with clean electricity, the demand for batteries will skyrocket. Lithium-ion batteries currently power nearly all electric vehicles and consumer electronics. However, lithium is a finite resource and current battery chemistries are not without environmental concerns. Researchers are pursuing more sustainable materials that can enable a low-carbon future.
Sustainable sourcing of critical materials
One of the biggest challenges is ensuring a reliable and responsible supply of critical battery materials like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese. These materials are mined all over the world, often with impacts to local environments and communities. Researchers are working to develop battery chemistries that require fewer of these scarce resources or that can utilize more abundant alternatives. For example, lithium iron phosphate batteries use phosphate mined in the US as an alternative to cobalt or nickel. Sodium-ion batteries could potentially replace lithium altogether by using ubiquitous salt deposits. Closed-loop recycling will also be key to recover Sustainable Battery Materials from spent batteries and put them back into new ones.
Developing safer, longer-lasting batteries
In addition to supply Sustainable Battery Materials, the flammability of today's lithium-ion batteries limits their application in some markets like aviation. Researchers are pursuing new chemistries and solid-state designs to enhance safety. For example, lithium-sulfur batteries can store 2-3 times more energy per unit weight than existing technologies. Their atomic structures are also safer and less prone to thermal runaway. Longer battery life is also important for reducing costs and environmental impacts over time. Scientists are using new materials and clever engineering to limit capacity fade and extend battery cycles to over 1000 charges from current averages of 500 cycles for electric vehicles.
Utilizing abundant and non-toxic materials
While graphite and lithium are scarce, other elemental candidates for battery anodes and cathodes exist in vast quantities globally. Sodium, potassium, magnesium, aluminum, and calcium are increasingly explored as alternatives. For example, sodium-ion battery cathodes have been developed from inexpensive minerals like iron phosphates and Prussian blue analogs. Aluminum is also gaining interest as an anode material due to its high natural abundance and potential cost advantages over graphite. Researchers are evaluating these “post lithium-ion” systems using computational modeling to design new electrode materials and understand performance challenges versus conventional lithium chemistries. The goal is battery technologies that do not rely on geopolitically sensitive materials or pose long-term toxicity risks from mining tailings and recycling streams.
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