An exotic state of matter — a “random solid solution” — affects
how ions move through battery material.
New observations by researchers at MIT have revealed the
inner workings of a type of electrode widely used in lithium-ion batteries. The
new findings explain the unexpectedly high power and long cycle life of such
batteries, the researchers say.
The findings appear in a paper in the journal Nano Letters
co-authored by MIT postdoc Jun Jie Niu, research scientist Akihiro Kushima,
professors Yet-Ming Chiang and Ju Li, and three others.