Quartz powder for the battery of the future

Materials researchers have developed a method that could enable a breakthrough for the lithium-sulphur battery. In theory, lithium-sulphur batteries can deliver considerably more energy than today’s conventional lithium-ion batteries, but current prototypes show a distinct loss of capacity after just a few charging cycles. As a result, they are not yet fit for widespread use, for instance in electric vehicles. With their new method, the researchers were able to gain crucial insights into how the rapid capacity loss occurs. And they showed: if quartz powder is added to the liquid component of the battery, this loss can be slowed down.

(via WSJ)