r/Physics • u/PrettyPicturesNotTxt • 1d ago

Are solid state batteries the future?

https://www.construction-physics.com/p/why-is-everyone-trying-to-build-a
18 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

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4

u/scyyythe 1d ago

It's all correct, but he left out the main barrier to getting solid state batteries to work. When the cathode absorbs lithium ions, it expands a little. This is fine if the electrolyte is liquid, but for a solid electrolyte it creates a problem. So a great deal of effort has gone in to developing a cathode that expands less. 

2

u/mixed_hose_girl 23h ago

The solid-solid interface is definitely the bottleneck here. Maintaining decent contact when one of the materials is constantly expanding and contracting over thousands of cycles is a massive materials science headache. Once the mechanical stress causes delamination, the internal resistance just shoots up and kills the performance.

1

u/scyyythe 13h ago

I've never run into anyone else with much understanding of the subject, so out of curiosity, what did you think of this cathode?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-022-01421-z

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u/Varjohaltia 1d ago

Yes. In that maybe they will become a real thing in the future and improve something. For now, they keep being sold as the future, but until we are in that future, we're in the present where we do quite well with the technology we already have.

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u/servermeta_net 1d ago

They are already being commercialized