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  • COMMENT

Ten years left to redesign lithium-ion batteries

Reserves of cobalt and nickel used in electric-vehicle cells will not meet future demand. Refocus research to find new electrodes based on common elements such as iron and silicon, urge Kostiantyn Turcheniuk and colleagues.
  1. Kostiantyn Turcheniuk

    1. Kostiantyn Turcheniuk is a research scientist at the School of Materials Science & Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA.

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  2. Dmitry Bondarev

    1. Dmitry Bondarev is an undergraduate student at the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA.

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  3. Vinod Singhal

    1. Vinod Singhal is a professor of business at the Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA.

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  4. Gleb Yushin

    1. Gleb Yushin is a professor of materials science at the School of Materials Science & Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA.

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Electric vehicles need powerful, light and affordable batteries. The best bet is commercial lithium-ion cells — they are relatively compact and stable. But they are still too bulky and expensive for widespread use.

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Nature 559, 467-470 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05752-3

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Competing Interests

G.Y. is a co-founder, chief technology officer, a board member and a shareholder of Sila Nanotechnologies, the company commercializing silicon-based anode materials mentioned in this Comment article.

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