Calcium: Popular, safe, and cheap materials can end the era of Li-ion batteries

As you probably know, lithium-ion batteries that are powering your mobile phone or laptop have many drawbacks. Sometimes they catch fire, smoke or even explode.

Lithium-ion batteries are also not cheap, as their production depends on the limited supply of lithium and cobalt that are increasingly scarce. The exploitation of these two ores is also very toxic and has a great impact on the environment.

Lithium-ion batteries that are powering mobile phones or laptops have many drawbacks.

So what's the solution? Scientists are aiming to make new generation batteries with anodes made of calcium. Clearly, more abundant calcium can help reduce battery costs. Calcium batteries are also safe, durable and less toxic than lithium batteries.

The idea is that, but until recently scientists were stuck in finding a suitable electrolyte for calcium batteries, without it, there would be no electrical current flowing inside the battery.

Zhirong Zhao-Karger, a scientist at the Helmholtz Ulm Institute in Germany and colleagues now solve the problem. They reacted with a calcium compound to a fluorine compound to create a new type of calcium salt.

This salt has better electrical conductivity than any previous calcium-based electrolyte. In addition, it also produces ionic currents at higher voltages than any other known calcium electrolyte.

A calcium ore mine, a common material, is safer and cheaper than lithium.

With these superior properties, Zhao-Karger's new compound could pave the way for the production of batteries based on calcium. These new generation batteries promise to be lighter, safer, more efficient and cheaper than lithium batteries.

It can be used in electronic devices such as mobile phones, cameras, laptops and even electric cars. In addition, calcium batteries can also be applied in industrial scale systems to store wind and solar energy.