Material discovery could lead to improved potassium-ion batteries

Led by chemists from Glasgow University and battery testing experts at Helmholtz Institute Ulm, the research brings potassium-ion batteries a step closer to becoming a viable alternative to lithium-ion systems. According to the team, this is due to the abundant availability of potassium and its advantageous material properties like rapid charging.

Experts believe that the batteries could be cheaper and easier to manufacture in the future than lithium-ion batteries, opening up applications including the storage of electricity generated from renewable sources.

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Dr Alexey Ganin, of Glasgow University’s School of Chemistry, is the paper’s lead author and the head of the Glasgow ElectroChemistry on Solids (GECOS) group.

“Lithium-ion batteries have become widely adopted in devices from smartphones to electric cars in recent years, and are capable of excellent performance, but lithium is a relatively rare, and therefore strategically important, element,” he said in a statement. “Potassium is a much more abundant material, and potassium-ion batteries have a lot of potential as an alternative method of storing and delivering large amounts of electricity. Adopting potassium-ion batteries for stationary storage purposes could help free up lithium resources for use in more energy-intensive mobile applications in the future.”