Scientists have discovered an alternative to costly and environmentally damaging lithium-ion batteries – used in everything from smartphones to electric cars – in the form of a 140-year old technology.Iron-air batteries, first invented in 1878, hold a far higher energy density to lithium-ion batteries at a fraction of the cost, however until now they have impractical for recharging purposes due to rusting.A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology now claims to have fine-tuned a process known as “reverse rusting” in order to allow the new design to charge and discharge energy.“Iron-air batteries can be commercially scaled up for energy storage and help mitigate climate change by mid-century,” Yet-Ming Chiang, an electrochemistry professor at MIT, told Popular Science.“When you reverse the electrical current on the battery, it un-rusts the battery. Depending…
140-year-old rusty batteries offer huge breakthrough for energy storage
