Li-ion batteries: news, progress, history and background

"It’s crazy how little we’re funding energy" - Bill Gates Energy research is underfunded by a factor of two, Gates said, referring to the amount of current U.S. government investment in energy research. Underfunding energy research means there is a higher risk that we won’t be able to deliver the needed energy breakthroughs, said Gates. Gates pointed out that funding basic research naturally has a high failure rate: Potentially 90 percent of the projects in ARPA-E won’t make a dent in the future of energy technology, he said. “Look at the battery companies [at ARPA-E], and if you can find the one out of ten that will breakthrough, then great, go invest in it,” said Gates. by Earth2Tech by Katie Fehrenbacher Related articles Bill Gates: The lack of energy funding is crazy (gigaom.com) Bill Gates on Insanity and Energy R&D (news.sciencemag.org) Bill Clinton: We need to boost the budget for energy (gigaom.com) Inventing the Energy Future: Bill G

The moment of truth:   The Birth of the Lithium-Ion Battery The lithium-ion battery is currently the predominant power source for mobile phones, laptop computers, and many other portable electronic devices, and is being used increasingly in electric vehicles. Its inventor, A. Yoshino, describes the process by which the lithium-ion battery was first developed (picture shows the first test-tube cell) and made commercially practical. Successful safety tests marked the turning point in this work. from Angewandte Chemie International Edition by Akira Yoshino Related articles Envia Claims 'Breakthrough' in Lithium-Ion Battery Cost and Energy Density (InnovationToronto.com) New Lithium-Ion Battery Could Reduce Cost of EVs, Increase Range (cleantechies.com) Cabot launches new performance additive for advanced Lithium-ion batteries (greencarcongress.com) Rechargeable Batteries (ourdailygreenlife.blogspot.com)