This is one of the most underappreciated stories of our time: the incredibly rapid advances in battery technology that will lay the foundation for an electrified world as we abandon fossil fuels ourselves…Of course, there are questions. So what about the costs? Will batteries store enough energy to power something like a large airplane for its size? And where do we get all the rare metals needed to build them?
That's why Helen Czerski's story of the year is the October Nature article by Chao-Yang Wang and co-authors, describing a way to charge energy-dense batteries incredibly quickly, in just a few minutes. It highlights the extraordinary speed with which battery chemists, engineers, and technologists overcome the challenge. If you can charge a car battery in 10-12 minutes, the problem of charging more often becomes much less of an issue, allowing for smaller batteries that are cheaper and consume fewer resources.
We're also seeing great advances in battery technologies that rely on cheap, abundant sodium instead of expensive and relatively scarce lithium, and methods that make recycling all of these batteries much easier. Progress has been made in making sodium-based batteries that could reduce the need for destructive mining methods. The basic principles of a battery have not changed, but the potential of the latest releases is astounding and always getting better.
Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/dec/18/the-10-biggest-science-stories-of-2022-chosen-by-scientists
