Researchers see energy boost in atomically confined water

This is the conclusion of research carried out at North Carolina State University (NC State), which is said to raise questions about the behaviour of liquids confined at this scale, and could inform future energy-storage technologies.

"This is a proof of concept, but the idea of using water or other solvents to 'tune' the transport of ions in a layered material is very exciting," said Veronica Augustyn, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and corresponding author of a paper describing the work in Chemistry of Materials. "The fundamental idea is that this could allow an increased amount of energy to be stored per unit of volume, faster diffusion of ions through the material, and faster charge transfer.

"Again, this is only a first step, but this line of investigation could ultimately lead to things like thinner batteries, faster storage for renewable-based power grids, or faster acceleration in electric vehicles," Augustyn said.