There is much hope for longer-lasting batteries to extend the operational lives of your devices. Researchers from the University of East London (UEL) discovered a new way to measure how materials interact at the atomic level, paving the way for scientists to develop better-performing, longer-lasting batteries.
Their study focused on anions – negatively charged particles that play an important role in batteries and many other chemical processes. They examined how these anions interact with other substances and how readily they share their electrons with other atoms, which affects their behaviour in chemical reactions.
Using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), which shines X-rays onto a material to identify exactly what elements are present and how they are chemically bonded, they measured how tightly specific atoms within anions held onto their electrons. They then used computer modelling to recreate these measurements virtually, enabling them to predict the behaviour of the most promising battery materials without extensive laboratory testing.
This provides a much clearer picture of how anions interact with other materials, enabling scientists to focus on the materials that show the most promise for better and longer-serving batteries. In their study, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the team hopes the findings will subsequently fuel machine learning and artificial intelligence, helping scientists make faster, new chemical discoveries.