lithium

charges in four minutes and 6,000 hours of stability to forget about lithium

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I think we all dream of that moment: connecting our cell phone to the power and having it go from 0 to 100% in the time it takes to make a coffee, without the battery suffering any long-term damage or losing capacity over the months. This still sounds like science fiction, but it is what a team of researchers in China has just proposed and they have achieved it. In short. A consortium of scientists from Southeast University, HiNa Battery Technology and Yangzhou University has developed a new quasi-solid electrolyte (QSE) designed specifically for sodium metal batteries. The results of your research, published in the scientific journal Nano-Micro Lettersshow how they have achieved ultra-fast charging (equivalent to filling the battery in about four minutes, at a rate of 15C) while retaining 90% of its capacity after 2,000 high-speed charge and discharge cycles (3C). Sodium has just hit the table compared to lithium. More in depth. To understand the magnitude of this finding, you have to look at the current market. sodium batteries They have been capturing the attention of the industry for some time because sodium is a material infinitely cheaper and more abundant on Earth than lithium, which makes it possible to avoid global supply chain bottlenecks and price volatility. Until now, however, sodium’s big Achilles’ heel was the “equivalent trade-off”: if you wanted fast charging, you drastically sacrificed battery life and safety. This was due to the slow transport of sodium ions and the instability of the interfaces within the stack. This new advance makes a symmetrical sodium cell operate stably for 6,000 hours uninterrupted without failures related to short circuits. For the end user, this translates into a near future where electric vehicles and electronic devices will be much more affordable, safer and have charging times that will completely eliminate the famous “range anxiety.” The science behind the milestone. Researchers have dubbed this solution “dual intertwined mediator engineering.” In simple terms, they have completely redesigned the highway on which the ions travel inside the battery, eliminating traffic jams and reinforcing shoulders, without losing the physical-chemical rigor of the process. In conventional electrolytes, sodium moves clumsily, achieving a transfer number (the metric that defines how efficiently and freely ions move) of just between 0.4 and 0.7. The new electrolyte, called Sn-FB QSE, achieves an almost perfect index of 0.94. This indicates “single-ion conduction”: sodium travels individually and directly, without dragging heavy elements in its path. To achieve this, they have used two main chemical protagonists that act as a team: The releaser (DFOB⁻ Salt): At the molecular level, this salt weakens the strong coordination interaction between the sodium ions and the polymer network of the electrolyte. By removing this chemical “glue”, the sodium is freed. Molecular dynamics simulations show that ion diffusion reaches 16.8 Ų ns⁻¹, about six times faster than in traditional liquid electrolytes. The builder shield (Tin ions, Sn²⁺): During charging, the Sn²⁺ is first reduced at the anode. This creates a protective film (scientifically known as Solid-Electrolyte Interface or SEI) rich in a sodium-tin alloy. This layer acts as a mold that homogenizes the electric field, forcing the sodium to deposit flat and uniformly. Goodbye to the dreaded “dendrites”, those needle-shaped metal structures that pierce the battery and cause short circuits. Additionally, the dual effect is completed at the other end of the stack. While tin protects the anode, DFOB⁻ is sacrificially oxidized at the cathode to form another extremely robust, inorganic protective layer (CEI) just 14 nm thick. This thin film stops the degradation of the electrolyte in its tracks at high voltages, guaranteeing the longevity of the battery. From the laboratory to the real world. Often, these discoveries remain in tiny laboratory “button batteries” that never see the light of day. But the most promising thing about this research is its scalability and practical application. The researchers constructed flexible, pressure-free “pouch cells.” In a video demonstration, they managed to use one of these batteries to charge a smartphone continuously, even while repeatedly bending and manipulating it with their hands, demonstrating exceptional flexibility and resilience. Added to this is that the electrolyte remains stable up to 4.7 volts, opening the door to pairing it with even more powerful materials in the future. And most importantly for the industry: this approach is fully compatible with current manufacturing methods and could even be extended to lithium and potassium metal batteries. The future knocks at the door. Charging your phone in four minutes without destroying the battery in a few months has always been the Holy Grail of consumer electronics. With materials engineering innovations such as this quasi-solid electrolyte, sodium is no longer “the cheap brother” to position itself as a very high-performance technology. Although there is still a way to go to see these batteries on commercial shelves, this discovery makes it clear that the future of portable energy involves abandoning exclusive dependence on lithium. The era of accidentally plugging in your cell phone and having battery power for the entire day is a big step closer to being our daily routine. Image | Unsplash Xataka | Switzerland is digging a pit 27 meters deep and longer than two football fields: all for a giant battery

A scientist wants to build a space shield against solar storms. Your secret weapon: lithium and barium

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Predict the arrival of very strong solar storms It is important for many reasons. Not only to keep an eye out and not get lost the most beautiful auroras. Also because these could affect satellites or terrestrial communications systems, so it is important to take precautions. The problem is that, no matter how much prevention methods have improved, we cannot do much more than be prepared for what is coming. Today there are no ways to stop these solar storms. However, a scientist from Boston University has announced that it is working on a method to strengthen the Earth’s natural shield against this type of phenomena. A stronger shield. The scientist in question is called Brian Walsh and is working in what he himself has called a wall against solar storms. Its objective is to send six ships to strategic points in a geostationary orbit, so that they release chemical elements capable of strengthening the magnetic field. These should be elements such as lithium or barium, since they are easily converted into positively charged ions when solar ultraviolet radiation hits them. At that point, the cargo released by the ships is converted to plasma. Precisely, what reaches Earth with solar storms is also plasma. However, there is a big difference. The one that comes from the sun consists of charged particles that move at very high speed, with great energy. On the other hand, what would be released into the magnetosphere would be cold, static plasma, which acts as a kind of wall, preventing this high-speed plasma from passing through the magnetosphere. A good shield when the activity is not too intense. The Earth has a great shield against solar storms. Generally, our magnetic field prevents these charged particles from the Sun from crossing into our atmosphere. This is because the magnetic field generally acts as a kind of rail on which the plasma circulates. The electrically charged particles are retained on these rails, but do not cross to the other side. They can only reach the atmosphere at the poles, where the inclination of the magnetic field lines acts as a kind of funnel. Even so, the charged particles that come from the surface of the Sun may already arrive somewhat weakened there. They interact with the gases in the atmosphere, exciting the atoms and causing the release of the light that makes up the auroras. But there are usually not very detrimental effects on communications. On the other hand, if the solar storm is very intense, the particles may be able to deform the rails of the magnetic field, filtering at the poles, but also in other places in the magnetosphere. Historical consequences. The consequences of these types of events have been seen numerous times throughout history. The most dramatic case was possibly that of Carrington eventwhich took place in 1859. It is considered the most powerful solar storm that has been recorded in history with consequences on Earth. Because of this large release of plasma from the Sun, auroras were seen in places as far from the poles as Hawaii and Cuba, but there were also less noticeable consequences, such as the burning of telegraph lines in many parts of the world. Another very notorious and dangerous case took place during the Vietnam War, in 1972, when a solar storm caused the accidental detonation of several magnetic underwater mines. And much more recent is the Gannon Storm, which in 2024 affected the GPS systems of planting tractors in several locations in the United Statescausing losses of 500 million dollars among farmers. But the situation could be worse. It is estimated that a major storm like Carrington’s could occur once a century. There hasn’t been one this big since then, so it could happen in the not too distant future. And today we depend much more on technologies than then. It is estimated that the losses could be more than 2 billion dollars. A natural process. This artificial wall that Walsh wants to create is inspired by a process that occurs naturally. And the thing is that, from time to time, small fragments of the Earth’s atmosphere break off and join the magnetic field, reinforcing it before the arrival of charged particles from the Sun. Lithium and barium would do something similar, artificially. Simulations only: For now, Brian Walsh has only made simulations of his invention, he has not tested it in space by any means. He himself recognizes that it is a complex process, so it must be done perfectly so that it causes more benefits than problems. Releasing ionizable elements at random could be harmful if not done in the right place. In addition, ways must be found to put ships in the correct place in their orbit before the storm arrives, so it is important to speed up the process while improving prediction methods. Handicaps. Although it may seem like a lot of mass is required to carry out this procedure, Walsh insists that the payload needs fall within current launch capabilities. However, he recognizes that it is an expensive process. Therefore, it would be necessary to look for ways to optimize it so that the necessary investment is not so large. For example, you want to work on pulsed release so that ionizable material is not wasted. In short, this method of controlling space weather is not at all something that will be used imminently, but it is clear that in the future we will need something like this. If not this method, another, but we greatly need something that protects us from the harshest elements of the Sun. Image | NASA | Walsh et al. In Xataka | A sunspot 17 times larger than Earth caused red auroras across half the world. It is a very rare event

Three decades of innovation in lithium batteries and a 99% drop in price, in an illuminating graph

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The world has been immersed for years in two essential transitions to leave fossil fuels behind: energy and mobility. But for both to be possible, it is an essential requirement that a technology continue to improve and also drop in price: that of batteries, one of the main components of electric cars and the one responsible for storing excess energy in times of energy surpluses, for example in wind and solar energy. And in fact, this is what he has done: In the last 35 years the price of lithium batteries has plummeted 99%. In 1991, a lithium ion battery cost $9,210 per kWh (in constant 2024 dollars). In 2023, that same kilowatt-hour cost $111: we are talking about a drop of almost 99% in almost three decades. To make it tangible, Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Rosado of Our World in Data gives an example applied to car batteries: the battery of a current standard electric car with a range of 350 to 400 kilometers today costs about $5,000. A decade ago the same component would have cost more than $20,000. In 1991, almost $600,000. There is a strategic threshold that we have surpassed recently: 100 dollars/hWh, considered historically the point of economic parity with the internal combustion vehicle, but At the end of 2025 we will already overcome the barrier reaching 84 dollars/kWh. First of all, let’s start with the presentations: the graphics are from Our World in Dataa project of the Global Change Data Lab linked to the University of Oxford. And the primary source is a data series updated by Rupert Way, built on the original work by Ziegler and Trancik and completed with data from BloombergNEF and Avicenne Energy. All data is expressed in constant 2024 dollars. The price of lithium batteries has fallen 99% in 35 years The first graph shows the evolution of the price of lithium ion cells between 1991 and 2024, in constant 2024 dollars per kWh on a logarithmic axis. The line declines continuously and sharply throughout the series of years without any signs of stabilization until ending around $50-60/kWh in 2024. Evolution of the price of lithium ion batteries: 1991 – 2024. Our World in Data The second graph combines price with global accumulated production and uses a double logarithmic scale: it starts from an installed capacity of 130 kWh in 1991 and reaches 3,510 GWh in 2023. That the line remains straight for more than three decades, in two different graphs and with data from different sources, confirms that The price drop is not a coincidence or a streak. It is a stable mathematical pattern that allows you to project where prices will go. This trend is more important than the fall itself. Every time global cumulative production doubles, battery prices have fallen by 19%. Our World in Data This second chart shows that every time global cumulative lithium-ion battery production doubled, the price fell by 19%. That is the learning rate known as Wright’s Law. The learning curve remains stable for more than thirty years, regardless of financial crises, supply problems and even a pandemic. Behind that graph is that enormous jump from the 130 kWh installed in 1991 to 3,510 GWh in 2023. That is 27 million times more capacity in three decades and each doubling along the way led to a 19% reduction in price. With the current rate of installation, these duplications occur in less and less time, which implies that the curve is not going to slow down due to inertia. These graphs do not describe the past: they are a projection of the future. A stable learning rate of 19% per capacity doubling is a planning tool: it helps the industry and its actors to reliably estimate when storage will reach cost thresholds that make the electricity grid viable with high renewable penetration. According to IRENAthe cost of solar energy fell by 90% between 2010 and 2023 following the same logic. That the threshold has fallen below $100/kWh already has consequences: the European Commission estimates that the EU will need between 200 and 600 GWh of storage by 2030 and precisely this trajectory means that Europe will get the bills for its energy transition. However, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the graphs show the average cell price of the different types of lithium ion batteries, which have very different profiles of cost, life cycles or energy density. That doesn’t appear on the graph. Nor that battery cost is not everythingsince it has associated costs, such as installation or replacement. Likewise, it does not touch on the structural risks of the supply chain: lithium, cobalt or nickel are geographically concentrated and vulnerable to geopolitical tensions, such as warns the International Energy Agency. And although they are becoming cheaper, their weight and volume are still a handicap for some scenarios such as aviation or heavy trucks. In Xataka | The last piece of the renewable puzzle now fits: the price of storage batteries has reached its minimum In Xataka | China dominates the world of renewable energy, but it has an Achilles heel: it depends on the West more than it admits Cover | Our World in data

Chile has the lithium necessary to save the world from fossil fuels. The problem is that you are extracting it blindly

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The world desperately needs to move away from fossil fuels. To achieve this, electric vehicles and large renewable energy plants require a vital component for their batteries: lithium. This global emergency has set its eyes on one of the most inhospitable and fragile places on the planet, the Atacama Desert in Chile, which is home to about 25% of the world’s reserves of this mineral. But this “salvation” has a dark side. As deep research reveals published by MongabayChile is accelerating the blind exploitation of its salt flats. Under the institutional promise that this mineral will be the “new salary of Chile”—as It was defined by former president Gabriel Boric by promising wealth with strict environmental respect—the reality in the territory is diametrically opposite. The productive desire is crushing the socio-environmental knowledge that is required to avoid destroying the same nature that, ironically, the world is trying to save. The pact that seals the future. To capitalize on this demand, the Chilean State launched the National Lithium Strategy (ENL)seeking to consolidate the country as the undisputed leader of this market. In this context, an unprecedented mining agreement was forged. According to The Confusionthe state mining company Codelco and the private giant SQM sealed a historic pact to extract lithium in the Salar de Atacama until 2060 under a new joint venture: NovaAndino Lithium. With the aim of avoiding the local resistance that usually paralyzes these megaprojects, the agreement included an unprecedented governance model. This scheme promises the Atacama indigenous communities (the Lickanantay people) million dollars annually in profitsseats at dialogue tables and power of environmental oversight. A model that the industry celebrates as the standard for future “green mining”, but which in the territory has lit a fuse with unsuspected consequences. The disproportion of 33 to 1. Promises of environmental balance crumble when looking at the fiscal wallet. The figures are devastating: for every peso that the Chilean State invests to protect the fragile ecosystems of the salt flats, it allocates 33 to promoting productivity and mining technology. Through the Production Promotion Corporation (CORFO), the State has injected more than 166 million dollars in technological development for the industry. In dramatic contrast, the scientific investment to understand the impact of lithium on water, microorganisms and threatened species – such as Andean flamingos – is barely close to 5 million dollars. Yovisibility territorial. Added to this institutional blindness is territorial invisibility. As the media explains South Slope when documenting the scientific project LiOness Ringthe public eye has become obsessed with evaporation pools, ignoring the off-sites: the areas outside the salt flats. Transportation routes, port terminals and transit communities silently absorb equal or worse impacts under “the excuse of green development,” researchers warn. For the National History Prize winner, Lautaro Núñez, cited by the same media, the key is being lost in the debate: “The salt flats are Chile’s heritage.” Thirst in the desert. As millions flow into technology, the ecosystem depletes. Extracting lithium requires pumping and evaporating enormous amounts of ancient water. As detailed The Confusioncurrent operations consume up to 12,500 liters of industrial water for every ton of lithium, causing the salt flat to sink up to two centimeters per year. Faced with this threat, the injection of money has caused the greatest historical fracture of the Lickanantay people. The communities went from blocking routes in January 2024 to fighting each other for the millionaire loot, which could reach up to 150 million dollars annually for the region, according to data from the Chilean government. Social fracture. Rudecindo Espíndola, local farmer cited by The Confusionassures that participating in this agreement is a form of “participation justice” because, after 12,000 years of inhabiting the territory, they will finally have physical access to the plants to supervise the mining companies. However, others see the destruction of their social fabric. Sergio Cubillos, president of the Peine community, recognize the same publication that “the fact that today communities receive money is what has led to this division.” Sonia Ramos, a respected 83-year-old healer, is even more blunt. in his interview with Climate Home News: “We are land and water (…) but today there is fragmentation. Everything has become unbalanced.” For her, the mining megapact does not bring progress, but “death, the total destruction of the Salar.” So what’s going to happen? Seeking to justify its expansion until 2060, NovaAndino has promised to stop using fresh water and reinject at least 30% of the brine into the subsoil through new extraction technologies. However, this promise is being viewed with great skepticism. As microbiologist Cristina Dorador warnsthese reinjection technologies are not proven on a large scale and could alter the chemical composition of the desert. Continuing pumping until 2060, he says, could be the “coup de grace” for this vital ecosystem. The State as a facilitator, not as a protector. Politically, the course seems unchanged. The recently inaugurated far-right president, José Antonio Kast, has already promised to respect the contracts signed by the previous administration. The machinery will continue to operate. In statements to MongabayHernán Cáceres, director of the National Institute of Lithium and Salt Flats (INLiSa), justified the low state budget in environmental areas by arguing that this money is actually an “enabling expense.” That is, the State finances ecological studies and dialogue tables not necessarily to stop the impact, but to “pave the way” for mining companies, reducing the risks of social conflict and guaranteeing that companies can operate without resistance from indigenous peoples. Blindfold. While technological investments advance at record speed, legal protection, such as the recent creation of the Network of Protected Salt Flats, moves at a slow pace, trapped in bureaucracy and lack of funds. The history of lithium in Chile encapsulates the great contradiction of our time. In the quest to clean the air in the metropolises of the northern hemisphere, one of the oldest and most biodiverse corners of the global south is being squeezed and fractured. As the research concludes, the country today faces a monumental challenge: … Read more

We have solved the problem of space junk by burning it. A SpaceX lithium trail just proved to be a terrible idea

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For decades, the aerospace industry has had a consensus solution to the problem of space junk: burn it. A fairly simple phenomenon that is based on the satellite reentry when it ends its useful life in the atmosphere so that it begins to suffer friction and completely disintegrates. But the reality is that we are facing a huge problemsince physics reminds us that matter is neither created nor destroyed. We have captured him. Science is realizing that we are not removing space junk, we are just vaporizing it into metallic aerosols that are changing the chemistry of our own sky. And the definitive clue to this problem was found on the night of February 19, 2025where a team of German researchers pointed a laser into the sky over Kühlungsborn. What they detected in this case at about 100 kilometers altitude, in the thermosphere, was something that should not be there, since there were large amounts of lithium. And it wasn’t there for no reason, since it just coincided hours before with the re-entry of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which had disintegrated over the Atlantic between Ireland and the United Kingdom. Something new. The signal measured in this case was not very subtle, since was 10 times bigger to the usual concentration in that region, and this finding was collected in an article because it marks a great milestone: it is the first time that the metallic contamination released from a specific piece of space junk at the exact moment of burning has been observed “live” and from Earth. The metallic iceberg. The incident with this Falcon is not something isolated in our society, but is a symptom of the structural change we are experiencing. In 2023, a team of researchers already used different devices to be able analyze more than 50,000 aerosol particles in the stratospherewhich is the layer where our ozone layer resides, at about 15-30 km altitude. What did they see? Historically, the metals found in the stratosphere came from meteorites that entered our planet. But today it is estimated that 210 tons of aluminum per year in the atmosphere comes from the disintegration of satellites and rockets, compared to the 20 tons per year that vaporize naturally from meteors. But lithium is not the only metal in the atmosphere of our planet, since scientists have detected more than twenty elements, among which aluminum, copper, lead or silver stand out… This is something that does not fit with the normal composition of meteorites, but it does coincide with the materials that different aerospace companies use to create their rockets and satellites. There is no planning. The pace of launches has skyrocketed in recent years, and if today we are close to 10,000 objects orbiting the Earth, we have to know that only Starlink aspires to have more than 40,000 satellites in Earth orbit low. But the problem is that the useful life of these devices is short, so their inevitable fate is to end up vaporized over our heads. Its effects. Science here is quite clear that the effects of filling the stratosphere with these metals are currently unknown. But the projections suggest that we should not be calm because elements such as aluminum and copper are important catabolizers that can affect the delicate ozone layer. In addition to this, metallic particles can act as special condensation nuclei, altering the microphysics of polar stratospheric clouds. And if that were not enough, adding anthropogenic material to sulfuric acid aerosols changes their size and ability to scatter sunlight. Ironically, we are altering the reflectivity of the stratosphere, the same layer that some scientists want to use for climate geoengineering, without knowing what the consequences will be. The planetary limit. The models here suggest that, if the planned megaconstellations materialize, the fraction of stratospheric particles contaminated with aluminum from satellites will rise from the current 10% to around 50%. In other words, the load of metals in the stratosphere could grow by around 40% compared to natural levels. Here for years space agencies have assumed that disintegrating satellites was a completely harmless and clean practice. The example of the Falcon 9, which has validated the warnings of the scientific community, shows us that the Earth’s orbit and our atmosphere make up a connected ecosystem. In this way, launching tens of thousands of objects into space and then burning them on our own roof may be a solution to keep space clean, but we are dirtying the sky in return. In Xataka | Spain and Portugal have joined forces to launch satellites with a mission: to monitor catastrophes in real time

The United Kingdom has found lithium under its feet, but extracting it is going to be a billion-dollar logistical nightmare

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For vacationers visiting cornwallin the south-west of the United Kingdom, the landscape is a haven of peace dotted with historical remains. It is the land of the old tin and copper mines that inspired series like Poldarka region with more than 4,000 years of mining history. However, beneath this postcard scenario lies the most coveted resource of the 21st century. The then Prime Minister Boris Johnson baptized it in 2021 as the “Lithium Klondike”, in reference to the historic gold rush. Today, As detailed in an extensive report by Guardianthat “white gold” is the great hope for the British energy transition. The race for the first drop of lithium. The sector has recently reached milestones that seemed impossible a decade ago. On the one hand, as reported Financial TimesCornish Lithium company has just commissioned its first commercial demonstration plant in the region. This facility is designed to extract lithium from hard rock in former clay (kaolin) mines, a crucial step that demonstrates that large-scale domestic mining is technically feasible. Crushing stone is not the only way. In parallel, a fascinating technology has emerged that unites mining and renewable energy. It turns out that, several kilometers deep, the superheated water flowing through the fractures of the granite of cornwall It is loaded with dissolved lithium. As explained by BBCTaking advantage of this has enabled a historic milestone: the United Downs power plant, operated by Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL), has become the first in the country to generate electricity from the Earth’s heat, while producing the first domestic supply of lithium extracted from these underground fluids. The mechanics, as detailed Guardianis ingenious: the boiling brine is pumped (at about 200 °C), its heat is used to drive turbines that generate electricity, the lithium is chemically extracted and the cold water is returned to the subsoil. The initial figures for this project are modest—just 100 tons of lithium per year, enough for 1,400 electric cars—but the goal is to scale up to 18,000 tons per year. What does it really mean to unearth this treasure?? As emphasized Financial Timesthe primary motivation is geostrategic: the West desperately needs to reduce its dependence on China in the critical metals supply chain. Additionally, unlike wind or solar energy, geothermal brine provides renewable electricity “24 hours a day, 7 days a week”, shielding the network against the vagaries of gas. An abyss riddled with obstacles. But from the laboratory to the commercial mine there is a stretch full of barriers. First, drilling wells kilometers deep or building processing plants requires massive injections of capital. The GEL project has already cost 50 million pounds, inform BBC. Furthermore, the market is ruthless: recently, the Imerys British Lithium (IBL) side project, which promised to create the largest lithium hub in the country, has had to be halted due to “funding constraints and difficult market conditions.” The second major obstacle is the emotional shock with the population. A report from a few months ago in The Conversation perfectly illustrates this drama in the village of St Dennis. For Cornish Lithium to expand its open-pit mine at the former Trelavour quarry, it needs to demolish huge conical mountains of clay waste. The problem is that the locals have affectionately named them Flatty and Pointy. What for the mining company is debris that blocks lithium, for the people it is their heritage, their visual identity since the 19th century. It is the bitter dilemma of the green transition: sacrificing the local landscape to save the global climate. The Spanish mirror. This tension between national urgency and local rejection resonates strongly in Spain. As we have explained in Xatakathe European Union has launched a lifeline of 22,000 million euros to support 47 strategic mining projects and stop the bleeding of foreign dependence. Seven of them are on Spanish soil, with three standing out in Extremadura: the Aguablanca mine (the only nickel deposit in Europe, which reopens after a decade) and the tungsten mines of Las Navas and La Parrilla. However, the syndrome NIMBY (“Not In My Back Yard”) hits just as it does on British soil. The same publication recalls that the emblematic and controversial Cáceres lithium mine has been left out of European aid due to the fierce opposition of neighborhood and environmental platforms, a social pressure that has already managed to knock down similar projects in Ávila. The shadow of the dragon: the clock is ticking. While Europe deals with waste dumps and bureaucracy, China competes in another league. Fatih Birol, director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), warned to launch An operational mine takes an average of 17 years. The West is running against the clock, and Beijing is two decades ahead of us. And the data is suffocating. China processes 80% of the world’s lithium and 95% of graphite. For years, they sold batteries below production cost, taking losses to exterminate Western competition and establish silent dependence. Far from relaxing, the Asian giant keep devouring the subsoil: it has recently tripled its lithium reserves (going from 6% to 16.5% worldwide) thanks to new discoveries in its salt lakes. And the problem is not just “white gold.” The IEA alert that by 2035 there will be a 30% supply deficit in copper. Without copper for the cables, having batteries will be useless. The true cost of the transition. The UK’s mining awakening is the perfect microcosm of the challenge facing the West. We have discovered that we have the treasure under our feet, but geology is only the starting line. “White gold” requires colossal sacrifices. It requires risking billions in unstable markets, altering places that communities love and facing a very slow bureaucracy in the face of an implacable Asian rival. The batteries that will power the 21st century are not only going to cost us money; They will require profound social wear and tear. Lithium promises us the future, but unearthing it is going to be a real nightmare. Image | Cornish Lithium Xataka | China sold cheap batteries … Read more

The big problem with lithium ion batteries is their degradation over time. A chemical adjustment can change it

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It doesn’t matter if it’s a mobile phone, a laptop, the Nintendo Switch or a Dyson: as you use it, the battery life will reduce. Yes, lithium ion batteries they have changed the world and for years they have been the absolute standard in consumer electronics, but degradation over time is their endemic evil. While we look for alternatives To this technology, a research team has found a promising solution in a seemingly simple chemical tweak. The advance. The main idea of ​​this research is not to change the main materials of the battery, but simply to add a small amount of an additive: lithium difluorophosphate. Its existence is not new, but this research led by Professor Chunsheng Wang of the University of Maryland reveals how effective it is in stabilizing batteries. Why is it important. Because lithium ion batteries are present everywhere and this modification would extend their useful life using standard, low-cost chemistry. The result of their experiment is that with this additive, batteries can be optimized to maximize power and energy, or to achieve greater useful life and stability. For practical purposes, the study shows how with this adjustment they maintained a significantly higher capacity after hundreds of charge and discharge cycles. As Wang explains.“It is a relatively simple modification of current batteries.” Or what is the same, after having run security tests and long cycles, “it could realistically reach consumers.” Brief notes on the mechanism of a battery. Lithium ion batteries are made up of a negative anode and a positive cathode and have a porous separator between the two. The assembly is immersed in an electrolyte whose mission is to allow lithium ions to move between electrodes during charging and discharging. With the discharge, the anode releases electrons to the electrical circuit (gives electricity to the device) and ions to the electrolyte, meeting again at the cathode. Upon charging, an external source (the charger) reverses the process by “pumping” the ions back to the anode to store the energy in the chemical structure. The degradation of its capacity with use occurs due to the irreversible loss of lithium in secondary chemical reactions and due to mechanical fatigue of the electrodes. Basic diagram of the operation of a lithium ion battery. Walter Davison. Via: Wikimedia In detail. If we delve a little deeper into the previous explanation, the solid electrolyte interface (SEI) appears, a thin layer that forms on the anode during the first charges. In standard batteries, this layer is fragile and breaks down with use, consuming lithium and reducing battery life. Through a simple reaction inspired by organic chemistry, this additive makes the electrolyte more prone to accepting electrons, making degradation more controlled. In short, it helps to form a more robust, elastic and uniform SEI, thus acting as a kind of shield that prevents the electrolyte from reacting parasitically with the electrodes. In addition, it is a flexible chemistry that can be adjusted to be more or less protective and the presence of the additive minimizes the presence of cracks in the cathode. In Xataka | They have found a way to turn tall buildings into batteries. And that makes Benidorm our best asset In Xataka | China sold cheap batteries for years. The problem is that in the meantime no one built an alternative Cover | John Cameron

If the question is why the US wants to rescue Argentina with a fortune, the answer has two ingredients: China and Lithium

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Argentina entered again in Turbulence zone Despite the drastic fiscal and monetary adjustment of Javier Milei. A bulky defeat in provincial elections, the erosion of support in Congress and a corruption scandal that splashes their surroundings fired the doubts of the investors, forced sales of reservations by More than 1 billion of dollars in three days to defend the exchange band and approached the weight to the lower limit of the corridor. And then he The United States appeared With a briefcase under your arm. American help. Yes, the reaction was a political-financial turn of Washington: the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, defined Argentina As “systemically important ally in Latin America” ​​and announced that “all options” were on the table to stabilize the markets, an explicit wink to the “whatver it Takes” of Mario Draghi in 2012. The message, a priori, had immediate effect on prices and expectations, but opened a greater debate about the scope, incentives and the risks of such support. What has been promised and how. The United States Treasury discusses a swap line with Buenos Aires of 20,000 million of dollars with the Central Bank and the possibility of buying sovereign debt in dollars from Argentina, in addition to making direct currency purchases if the conditions justify it. The operational tool would be the so -called Exchange Stabilization Fundwith wide discretionary margin to intervene in foreign exchange and assets, used in 1995 To help Mexico. Besent added that the treasure “is prepared” to acquire bonds and offer backup credit. Trump himself, after meeting with Milei, affirmed that will help, although he said “I don’t think they need a rescue,” framing assistance as access to “good debt” and market liquidity. In parallel, Milei sought internal oxygen suspending temporarily Grain export taxes to accelerate the flow of commercial dollars, while keeping operational, although partially activated, The swap line With the Popular Bank of China (18,000 million, of which about 5,000 are active). The small print. The announcement acted as a short circuit: The peso bounced, the 2029 and 2035 bonds recovered between 6 and 7 cents and the yield of 10 years in dollars fell from 17% to ~ 15%. Great managers They celebrated the signalunderlining that it provides a “critical window” to the legislative. However, investors requested details: effective volume, deadlines, conditions and intervention triggers. The Treasury He has suggested Absence of “conditionality” added to that of the IMF, but the practice usually imposes safeguards. In “House”, the package faces resistance: Criticism in Congress American questions to allocate emergency funds to sustain the currency and assets of a third party, with the political risk of being perceived as a lifeguard to Trump’s personal ally. Strategic reasons: why. The Analysts coincide With a clearly geopolitical reason: reduce dependence Argentina from China in financing, swaps and access to critical minerals Like lithiumand strengthen an openly government Pro-Mercado and aligned With Washington. The second It is financial: Prevent an episode of regional systemic instability due about 35% of the living support of the background on a global scale. The third may be of global signal: reaffirm the capacity of the United States to stabilize emerging markets with sovereign instruments, projecting financial power in a context of strategic competence. And the fourth, more tactical, purely electoral: Prevent short -term stress Extra ball: Meme politics. An added, less economical and more symbolic factor is politics turned into “Meme”. Just like Bukele He built prisons In El Salvador for ICE deportees as a gesture to Trump, Milei has earned a place within the magician imaginary in the United States for Your incendiary stylehis rejection of the establishment and His libertarian rhetoric. Under that prism, the current White House is willing to hold it because it embodies a political-cultural ally More than institutional, if you want to also, a kind of entry between “politically incorrect countries” that lend mutual support. If instead of Milei will govern A classic Peronista rescue of this size would have hardly been articulated, although, paradoxically, Trump shares with Peronism more related features than with the libertarian ideology that Milei proclaims. Lithium site A NAFTA as a counterpart. It We have counted before. Another angle to consider is the possibility that the financial rescue serves as prelude to an eventual Free Trade Agreement Between the United States and Argentina, a play that would fit with the interests of both parties. For Washington, it would be a way to shield access to strategic raw materials under a stable institutional framework and without the threat that Beijing capitalizes them through state investments. For Milei, a NAFTA with the world’s first economy would be political and economic support Of enormous value, with the ability to attract private capital, reduce financing and consolidate its image of “reliable partner” within the western block. The scenario, which is known, is not formally at the table, but the background of the rescue makes it a plausible possibility: the United States does not usually move chips of this magnitude without also binding long -term commercial commitments. The Argentine structural problem. The Financial Times counted This week that “shock therapy” stopped hyperinflationary drift, but the economy is still caught in A monetary duality that makes the system dependent and vulnerable to twists of feeling: each capital output realizes distrust in the peso and forces expensive defenses with few reserves. In this framework, the discussion about dollarization returns to the center: Milei champied her In campaign, then postponed it for its costs (loss of monetary policy, impossibility of adjusting by exchange rate and binding external cycles), but broad support from the United States could reopen it. Regional experience (Ecuador) and The European They teach to enter is easy and get almost impossible. Without tax reforms, productivity, exchange regime and institutional credibility, assistance can become a expensive and ephemeral patch. China and Treasures. As we said, the “nuclear” aims to remove Buenos Aires from the Chinese orbit in the dispute for strategic resources. The lithium of the “triangle” that integrates Argentina, … Read more

In the search to eliminate the lithium of the batteries, we have found the best candidate: multivent ion batteries

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Lithium ion batteries move the world and, in the era of electrification, every time They are more important. They have a series of limitations and Lithium is a finite resource With a high environmental impact, which is a problem if we want to electrify mobility. There the future solid state batteriesbut meanwhile, a group of NJIT researchers He has had an idea to give more life to the current technology: squeeze the maximum current batteries. As? With multivent ion batteries. Multivalent ions. A team of researchers from the New Jersey Institute -Njit- had an idea. If lithium is key to current batteries, but also scarce, We could use more abundant elements such as magnesium, calcium, aluminum or zinc as a replacement or to ‘dopar’ current batteries. The objective was to maintain, at least, the properties of current batteries and, if possible, improve storage benefits without depending on lithium. There the multive ion batteries come into play. If Ion-Litio have only one load, multiveous ion batteries that use the aforementioned elements allow two or even three positive charges. This property, in theory, allows you to store more energy by ion. Not everything is perfect. This property, as exposed in the studyit allows to store more energy by ion, but if they are not used it is because they present an important technical challenge. Multivalent ions are larger than lithium and have a greater load, which makes their movement difficult within current materials. To make it easy, imagine that the interior of the cells of a lithium -ion battery is a sponge with a certain number of recesses that catch particles. In a multivete ion battery, it has more holes and each one catches more particles, but the sponge is also greater. Accelerated by AI. That was the great limitation of the technological industry, but what NJIT researchers have done is to put the artificial intelligence To work. In this context, the use of AI is ideal because it allows simulating a large range of possibilities, of which the most convincing to test them. The end of the AI was to find new viable compounds to create multive ion batteries and, for this, they used a dual approach. On the one hand, a model called CDVAE (Variational Crystal Dissemination Self -coach) that was trained with known crystalline structures to generate new materials. On the other, a model of LLM LLM LANGUAGE Aphinated to select only the most thermodynamically stable structures. When they finished the work, they discovered five new porous metal oxides that are shown as ideal for transporting multivalent ions quickly and safely. “One of the greatest obstacles was not the lack of promising chemicals for batteries, but the practical impossibility of trying millions of material combinations,” said Dibakar Datta, leader of the research team. “We resort to generative artificial intelligence as a rapid and systematic way to explore that vast panorama and detect the few structures that multivalent batteries could really do practices.” Structures isolated by AI models. Section A is that of the CDVAE. The B is that of LLM Beyond the batteries. The team states that it validated the structures generated by AI using mechanical-chanting simulations and stability tests, confirming that these isolated materials could be synthesized with great potential for applications in the real world. Currently, and with those results, from the NJIT they are collaborating with other laboratories to synthesize and test those materials designed by AI. And something that Datta highlights is that, as a collateral effect on research, they have demonstrated once again that AI can be “a quick and scalable method to explore any advanced material, from electronics to clean energy solutions, without relying on extensive tests by test and error.” Once the best results are isolated, of course, it is time to try them in the real world, but much of the previous work It accelerates considerably. A mere patch? Now, although changing the ‘formula’ of lithium -ion batteries can be a good patch, the objective of the industry is still put in the implementation of solid state batteries. The catalyst in them is not a liquid, but a solid that allows us to solve many of the problems of current batteries, while offering a Greater energy density and faster load times. They are batteries that are already developed and that are being driven by Much of the automotive industrybut the problem is that it is a more expensive technology and is not settled. Bringing it to the real world, for example, Mercedes is already in itwhile other brands like BMW say that, for the moment, they are not in their plans due to precisely the price. Images | NJIT, Cell Reports Physical Science, Kumpan Electric In Xataka | An extraordinarily promising substitute has come out of the batteries. And yes, it has everything

The good news is that there is a material that works well on the walls of fusion reactors. The bad: it is lithium

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We know how the sun works. Another thing is to imitate it. If we got Build a nuclear fusion reactorwe would have clean, safe and practically unlimited energy. But doing so involves incredibly complex engineering challenges. The wall problem. One of the more colossal challenges In nuclear fusion is to build a container that supports a hottest plasma than the sun’s core. For years, scientists have been experiencing with various materials, from graphite to high resistance metals such as tungsten. A recent researchthe result of an international collaboration of nine institutions, confirms that we have a star candidate that works spectacularly well for the wall of the reactors: lithium. A self -refrasinal shield. To understand why lithium is so attractive, you must first visualize the hell that is unleashed inside a tokamak, the most common fusion reactor design. A hydrogen gas, mainly its deuterium and tritium isotopesmore than 100 million degrees Celsius is heated to become a plasma. Magnetic fields potently confine it so that it does not touch anything, but it is impossible to prevent some particles from escaping and violently shocking against the interior walls of the reactor. This is where lithium shines because it can be used in a liquid state. Instead of eroding and degrading with each impact, it flows and heals himself instantly. This self -referential liquid layer would protect the solid components behind. Moreover, if the reactor walls are hot enough, the lithium can form a steam shield that absorbs much of the impact before it reaches the solid surface. Goodbye to graphite? Research shows that lithium is not only a passive shield, but an active plasma conditioner. Instead of reflecting the fuel particles that escape, cooling the edge of plasma and destabilizing it, lithium absorbs them. This helps keep heat where it has to be and, therefore, to stabilize the fusion reaction and improve the confinement of plasma. According to researchers, lithium is a promising candidate to replace graphite, which has a much higher erosion rate. Applied in tungsten walls, it allows to operate the fusion to greater power densities, opening the door to more compact and efficient reactors. Two ways to apply it. The researchers tested, on the one hand, to cover the lithium walls before lighting the plasma and, on the other, to inject lithium powder directly on the plasma during the reactor operation. The injection was much more effective when creating a uniform and stable temperature profile, one of the sacred conditions for commercial fusion. All tests were carried out at the Tokamak Diii-D of General Atomics with financing from the United States Department of Energy. The authors of the study, published in the Materials and Energy nuclear magazine, are researchers of the Princeton plasma physics laboratory and his collaborators. Bad news. In addition to exercising even more pressure on the already tensioning lithium market (Although it does not scarce, it is not extracted to the rhythm that grows its demand), there is a more alarming problem. The lithium is too much Well at work. Catch the tritium with a very high efficiency, preventing it from returning to plasma to be used as fuel. If the tritio is stuck to the walls, the reactor ends up running out of fuel and the cycle breaks. The accumulation of radioactive tritium in cold areas and difficult to access the reactor also greatly complicates its maintenance and is a safety risk. To top it off, the retention is more significant if the lithium is injected with the reactor in operation, the most efficient application method. A possible solution. The key is that these experiments were carried out with lithium in solid state, at temperatures below its melting point. In a real reactor, with liquid lithium, The solution could be a “dialysis” system: Instead of bathing the walls by a lithium river and leaving it there, it would be continuously extracted from the reactor, taken to a processing plant to separate the tritium trapped, and pumped back, clean and ready to continue working. The reactor design would have to adapt to this new proposal. It would be necessary to avoid the cold areas where lithium and tritio could accumulate and stay stagnant, keep the walls at higher and more controlled temperatures, and include the circuit to extract, processes and continuously introduce lithium. A material that solves multiple problems in our mission of simulating the sun, but in return introduces new and also complex. Image | General Atomics In Xataka | There is an alternative to nuclear fusion. It is already underway and is extraordinarily promising

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