Quick Summary
• For more than two decades, lithium-ion batteries have powered almost everything around us. They are inside smartphones, laptops, electric vehicles, drones, and even many medical devices. Batteries have improved a...
Additional Context
For more than two decades, lithium-ion batteries have powered almost everything around us. They are inside smartphones, laptops, electric vehicles, drones, and even many medical devices. Batteries have improved a lot over the years. But they can still overheat, use expensive materials like cobalt, and are becoming harder to improve. Instead of developing a completely new battery, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) are focusing on the one we already use. Their idea is to redesign its inside with 3D printing. And the team’s work focuses on one of the battery’s most important components: the cathode.
A Different Way to Build a Battery
Most lithium-ion batteries today are built with flat, layered electrodes. It is a design that has worked well for years because i