Researchers are in a race to find the ultimate energy storage solution, considering the rise of renewable energy generation and electric vehicle (EV) sales around the world. Some scientists are trying to improve the lithium-based battery chemistry with alternative and innovative solutions, while others are hoping that they will come up with a way to use different –i.e., cheaper and more readily available–chemical elements in batteries. Aluminum, sodium, and potassium are some of those chemical elements that are much more abundant than lithium. In theory, these could be used in batteries for energy storage. However, research has shown that aluminum, sodium, and potassium are challenging to work within batteries because they lack the suitable materials for the battery electrodes. That is, until now. New research led by Professor Guoxiu Wang from the University of Technology Sydney proposes a novel method to strain engineer a 2D graphene nanomaterial for making […]