Toward Practical Demonstration of High-Energy-Density Batteries

The search for enhanced energy density is fueling global research in battery science and engineering, where applications spanning consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and grid-scale energy storage are stimulating enormous industrial growth. While higher-energy-density batteries will combat range anxiety hampering EV adoption, it is not the only metric of importance; across a breadth of applications from implanted devices to space exploration, there are various requirements for safer, cheaper, and more durable batteries, as well as those that can be sourced from widely available materials and readily recycled. In this issue of Joule, Zhou and co-workers outline a 500 Wh/kg battery based on anionic redox between Li2O and Li2O2, demonstrated at the pouch cell level, providing a new benchmark for gravimetric energy density.