Very interesting company. They started with a way to produce graphene at scale, then went looking for something to do with it. Their first idea was to use it as a cement additive. They have since used it as friction reducer in engine oil, and are selling it in Australia, Canada, and soon the US, as a radiator coating to improve HVAC performance.
I am not any kind of expert either, but I have been following this company for a couple of years. If it makes it to market and is at all price competitive i can’t see it not being a big deal. Granted, that is an if, not when, but they seem to be further along than most battery tech you read about.
No rare earth metals or even nickel or copper, has a very flat degradation curve even at charge rates up to 30C (testing stopped at 3k cycles in the coin cell tests), non flammable and non toxic. The only thing you would wish for is better capacity, but it is already better than any mass produced Li ion cell, and it has a theoretical maximum a couple times that of Li ions.
Lithium-polymer batteries didn’t take off until the 2000s. Those (and the lithium-ion they were built on) were pretty revolutionary, at least as much as this aluminum-ion is supposed to be. That ought to count. (Unless you’re less than 20 years old, in which case “never in my lifetime” is probably accurate, and you should count yourself lucky that you never had to deal with arrays of D batteries, or the mediocre but technically rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries.)
That makes me wonder if there’s more modern versions of the AA and AAA batteries that use the newer tech to last longer (and hopefully not leak if left alone for a while). All the ones I have here just say “alkaline” and I’m not sure if that’s a category that includes newer lithium batteries or if it’s just the same old tech.
Yes, you can get rechargeable lithium batteries in the standard form factors like AA or AAA. They should work for most things, but the voltage is a bit different and of course you must use the right charger. They’ve been out for quite a few years and even the main brands sell them now
You’re right, battery news IS always breathlessly excited about the next crazy advancement, but they have a lot of things in their favor on this one. They broke ground on a manufacturing plant last year, which is not the case for most battery news stories. And the battery uses no rare earth metals, is non flammable, and performes better by nearly every metric than lithium ion. If they make it to market, I think they will absolutely be revolutionary.
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