Scientists at Georgia Tech have made a major breakthrough that could make batteries safer, longer-lasting, and easier to use in everyday devices.
They’ve created a new type of solid-state battery that works at much lower pressure than current designs. This could help bring powerful solid-state batteries to everything from smartphones to electric vehicles.
Right now, most batteries in phones, laptops, and electric cars use a liquid inside them, called an electrolyte, to move energy around.
These “lithium-ion” batteries are reliable and compact, but they can sometimes overheat and catch fire.
That’s why researchers have been working on solid-state batteries, which use a solid electrolyte instead.
These are much safer and can store more energy. But there’s been a big problem: they need very high pressure to work well. The pressure is so strong that batteries often have to be squeezed by heavy metal plates—making them too bulky and heavy for everyday use.
To solve this problem, Professor Matthew McDowell and his team at Georgia Tech tried something new. They mixed the commonly used lithium metal with a softer metal called sodium. Sodium isn’t usually used in these batteries because it doesn’t help power them.
But it’s very soft—so soft that you could press your finger into it and leave a dent. Surprisingly, adding sodium improved the battery’s performance. It allowed the battery to keep working well even with much less pressure.
The scientists explained this behavior using a concept from biology called “morphogenesis,” which describes how living tissues form and change shape based on their environment.
In the battery, the sodium metal changes shape easily during use, helping the lithium stay connected to the solid parts of the battery and keeping everything running smoothly.
This shape-shifting process, rarely seen in battery materials, is key to making the battery work under lower pressure.
The results were published in the journal Science, and the research team has filed for a patent. While solid-state batteries aren’t ready for everyday use just yet, this discovery brings them one step closer.
If these batteries become widely available, your phone could last longer between charges, and electric cars might go hundreds of kilometers further without recharging.
McDowell and his team are continuing to test other materials and hope their work will lead to smaller, safer, and more powerful batteries for the future.
