-WSJ
The batteries that power our modern world will soon experience something not heard of in years: double-digit-percentage increases in their capacity to store electricity.
The next wave of batteries is finally ready for commercialization, which should result in mobile phones that have 10% to 30% more battery life, an increase in cellular-connected wearables and makers of electric cars and home storage batteries being able to knock thousands of dollars off their prices, among other potential developments.
Some startups say they are developing production-ready batteries with anodes that are mostly silicon, which can hold 25 times as many lithium ions as graphite, a material typically used to make anodes.
This would be a more fundamental change to the materials that make up batteries rather than yet another improvement in production that slightly increases storage capacity. However, silicon brings countless technical challenges.
For example, a pure silicon anode will soak up so many lithium ions that it gets “pulverized” after a single charge, says the director of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research.
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