College of Chemistry

An array of lithium-ion batteries stacked side by side. Conventional lithium-ion batteries made from cobalt-based cathodes (orange) and a battery with a manganese-based cathode made from two new materials (blue). The cathode structures are depicted under the surface of the batteries. The new manganese-based materials have a disordered rocksalt structure that provides higher energy density than cobalt-based batteries. A manganese ion (blue sphere) yields two electrons during the battery discharge cycle, delivering twice the capacity of the cobalt ion (orange sphere), which only yields one electron. Image courtesy of Advanced Light Source.