The lithium-ion batteries that power your phone or electric vehicle are fantastic at storing energy. After all, there’s a reason this technology dominates mobile energy storage. However, they have one fatal flaw: they can sometimes combust.
Lithium-ion batteries were responsible for at least 220 fires in New York City in 2022 alone. According to city numbers, such fires caused at least 10 deaths and 226 injuries in 2021 and 2022. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recorded 25,000 incidents of fire or overheating in lithium-ion batteries between 2012 and 2017.
Seeking to tackle this issue, researchers in Australia have devised an innovative battery that relies on water rather than a flammable electrolyte. This proof-of-concept is meant as an alternative for storing renewable energy, but there are ambitions to directly compete with the…
