Down To The Elements

THEY’RE IN OUR mobile phones, laptops and digital cameras. They power up remote-controlled drones and toys, hearing aids, wearables, pacemakers and are what you’ll find in electric cars. Making their debut towards the end of the 1990s to power consumer electronics, lithium-ion batteries were both a strategic resource and the foundation of a wireless, fossil fuel-free society.

“The development of better batteries is strongly connected with the evolution of our society,” says Teodoro Laino, the manager of Accelerated Discovery at IBM Research Europe.

With an estimated life span of two to three years (or 300 to 500 charge cycles), the technology underpinning lithium-ion batteries may