{"id":768125,"date":"2026-06-29T04:25:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/768125\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T04:25:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:25:17","slug":"breakthrough-could-lead-to-big-leaps-in-battery-performance-scientists-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/768125\/","title":{"rendered":"Breakthrough could lead to \u2018big leaps\u2019 in battery performance, scientists say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was previously thought that during the charging process much of the activity happens in metal elements inside the battery, such as nickel, cobalt, or iron, and that oxygen in the battery was \u201cpassive\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>However, the team said advanced computer modelling and laboratory experiments have shown that oxygen plays a much more active role in the charging and discharging process.<\/p>\n<p>They said the findings could lead to the development of batteries for electronics and vehicles that charge faster, last longer, and are safer to use.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Hrishit Banerjee, a theoretical physicist at Dundee\u2019s faculty of science, engineering and business, said: \u201cGlobal populations have become increasingly reliant on renewable energy technologies and advanced energy storage systems from everything from the mobile phones in our pockets to the cars we drive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis has made understanding the technology underpinning electronic processes inside battery materials increasingly important.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/effdbaea-5caa-4ca0-8741-065b589f0452.jpg\" alt=\"Dr Hrishit Bannerjee\"  \/>Dr Hrishit Bannerjee said the research shines light on how batteries work \u2018at a fundamental level\u2019 (University of Dundee\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis research is crucial and gives us a new understanding of how batteries function at a fundamental level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The study compared two of the main lithium-ion battery cathodes used today \u2013 phosphates and layered oxides.<\/p>\n<p>Together these forms of batteries are used for a host of applications, including electric vehicles and portable electronics such as mobile phones and laptops.<\/p>\n<p>The study found that while phosphates showed little oxygen participation, the layered oxides showed \u201csignificant\u201d electron extraction from oxygen.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Banerjee said: \u201cBy improving our knowledge of what is occurring at a tiny, atomic level within batteries, we can make big leaps in improving their performance in the real world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCurrent technologies are limited by the understanding of the underlying physics of how and why batteries fail over time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis general framework will help design batteries with much longer lifetimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The full findings have been published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was previously thought that during the charging process much of the activity happens in metal elements inside&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-768125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}