When it comes to modern consumer electronics, we all seem to be obsessed with finding an electrical outlet to charge up. That’s because the lithium-ion batteries that power our smartphones, laptops, and other gadgets have a performance problem: with each charge, they become less efficient, eventually becoming too unstable to function.
Now chemists from Texas A&M have uncovered what causes batteries to slowly die: instead of flowing freely, electrons coupled to lithium ions are getting... read more