Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new rechargeable technology for batteries that could have double the power output compared to today’s most-widely used batteries, without catching fire or taking up additional space. This new tech could drastically extend the range of the electric vehicles or the time between cell phone charges. The lithium ion battery, the current standard for battery technology, became the norm in the early 1990s, when it was found that such technology was more stable than the rechargeable lithium metal batteries tested in the 1980s. Those early lithium metal batteries used liquid electrolytes, and in the battery environment, the lithium traveling between the electrodes formed “metal whiskers”, the so-called dendrites that can create a short circuit and cause the batteries to catch fire and even explode. Now the University of Michigan researchers say that their battery breakthrough—using a ceramic, solid-state electrolyte in lithium […]