A few days ago, three world-leading battery experts from Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University published a paper discussing the development process of chemical energy storage batteries and making predictions on the development prospects of lithium batteries. They believe that the energy density of lithium batteries can be increased by 2-3 times in the future, and the key lies in the innovation of battery materials.

The three scientists are: Michael M. Thackeray, Senior Scientist, Department of Electrochemical Energy Storage, Argonne National Laboratory, Director of Argonne National Laboratory, Eric Isaacs, nanomaterials expert and physicist, and Christopher Wolverton, a professor of materials science at Northwestern University. Their related papers have been published in the seventh issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2012.

At present, lithium batteries have been widely used in the digital field. However, due to the factors such as insufficient battery life, insufficient safety and short cycle life, it has been unable to be widely used in the field of electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage. In response to this, the above experts pointed out in the paper that to promote the widespread use of lithium batteries in energy storage systems required for electric vehicles and smart networks, breakthrough innovations in materials and chemistry are still needed. They pointed out that it is very likely that the energy density of lithium batteries will increase 2-3 times in the future, but a battery material with better performance needs to be found.

Finally, the paper mentioned that a stable, non-volatile, and non-liquid electrolyte should be developed to further improve the safety of the battery. In addition, the paper points out that how to achieve the electrochemical characteristics, safety, and price of the battery to work stably under a wide voltage range are all great challenges for the future development of lithium-ion batteries.