We’ve Been Using Lithium-Ion Batteries for Decades. Now We Know More About How They Work

In science, there is a surprisingly long list of things we still haven’t exactly figured out yet but still use because they work. This unexpectedly has been the case for lithium-ion batteries—a power source for electric vehicles and various portable electronics—where scientists knew what the mechanism was but weren’t sure exactly how it worked.

Fortunately, MIT scientists have found the answer. For a Science paper published October 2, researchers describe a model that illustrates how coupled ion-electron transfer (CIET), a process in which an electron travels to the electrode with an ion, in this case a lithium ion, may explain the life source of a lithium-ion battery. The insight could “guide the design of more powerful and faster charging lithium-ion batteries,” according to the resea