Battery breakthrough: Double performance lithium battery that doesn’t catch fire
Having read through a lot of battery breakthrough reports, I tend to zero in on the &#x27;hard bit&#x27; which in this particular case is here: <i>U-M researchers solved this problem with chemical and mechanical treatments that provide a</i> pristine <i>surface for lithium to plate evenly, effectively suppressing the formation of dendrites or filaments.</i><p>My reading of that was <i>if</i> you create this <i>pristine</i> surface, you get a wonder battery. On the other hand, if the surface has a defect in it anywhere you get dendrites, and the subsequent shorts they cause.<p>When I read that part I said &quot;Ok, so this will make great bespoke batteries that the military can use for their human carried gear, but they will be too expensive to compete with the existing lithium ion technology.&quot;<p>I really hope that I&#x27;m wrong here, and there is some process that can reliably make massive numbers of pristine plated lithium &#x2F; ceramic nodes but until we see that I don&#x27;t see this breakthrough making it out of the lab.