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The rechargeable, room-temperature stable battery was made possible using a rare-earth-based battery electrolyte that harnesses hydride ions, or negatively charged hydrogen ions.
Experimental data shows that the battery’s specific capacity – or the amount of electrical charge it can store per unit of mass or volume – is up to six times higher than that of some conventional lithium-ion batteries.
“We further constructed a multilayer stacked battery to increase the battery voltage to 1.9V, which successfully lit a yellow LED light, demonstrating that a hydride ion battery can be used to power electrical devices,” the team said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature on September 17.
“With a wide range of hydride materials for selection and optimisation, rechargeable hydride ion batteries would offer more opportunities for various applications in clean energy storage and conversion.”
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Conventional lithium batteries use positively-charged lithium atoms to store and release energy.
