Stardust Log

A record of stardust, quietly accumulating.
← Back to the glossary
Glossary / Batteries and storage

All-solid-state battery

A lithium-ion battery whose liquid electrolyte is replaced by a solid material. It is expected to be harder to ignite and to store more energy.

Ions move sluggishly in most solids, so practical performance long eluded the idea. In 2011 Ryoji Kanno's group at Tokyo Institute of Technology found a solid in which lithium ions move about as freely as in a liquid electrolyte[1]. In 2016 an all-solid-state battery based on this family of materials was reported to charge and discharge faster than liquid cells[2].

The challenges are keeping solid surfaces in contact through repeated cycling and producing the materials cheaply at scale. Carmakers are targeting around 2027–2028 for practical use.

Related terms

  • Lithium-ion batteryA battery that charges and discharges as lithium ions shuttle between the positive and negative electrodes. Used everywhere from phones to electric cars.
  • Humanoid robotA robot with a human-like body — torso, two arms and two legs. Its advantage is being able to use environments and tools built for people.

On the timeline

Sources

  1. N. Kamaya, K. Homma, Y. Yamakawa, et al., “A lithium superionic conductor,” Nature Materials 10, 682–686 (2011).
  2. Y. Kato, S. Hori, T. Saito, et al., “High-power all-solid-state batteries using sulfide superionic conductors,” Nature Energy 1, 16030 (2016).