Roadmap for rechargeable batteries: present and beyond

Rechargeable batteries currently hold the largest share of the electrochemical energy storage market, and they play a major role in the sustainable energy transition and industrial decarbonization to respond to global climate change. Due to the increased popularity of consumer electronics and electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries have quickly become the most successful rechargeable batteries in the past three decades, yet growing demands in diversified application scenarios call for new types of rechargeable batteries. Tremendous efforts are made to developing the next-generation post-Li-ion rechargeable batteries, which include, but are not limited to solid-state batteries, lithium–sulfur batteries, sodium-/potassium-ion batteries, organic batteries, magnesium-/zinc-ion batteries, aqueous batteries and flow batteries. Despite the great achievements, challenges persist in precise understandings about the electrochemical reaction and charge transfer process, and optimal design of key materials and interfaces in a battery. This roadmap tends to provide an overview about the current research progress, key challenges and future prospects of various types of rechargeable batteries. New computational methods for materials development, and characterization techniques will also be discussed as they play an important role in battery research.