RECHARGEABLE batteries are set to become less expensive and more environmentally friendly, thanks to a small tweak to an old material.
Top-quality rechargeable batteries used in everything from laptops to mobile phones rely on expensive compounds called lithium metal oxides. In the 1970s, researchers suggested that the cheaper lithium iron phosphate might be used as an alternative, but it proved very poor at conducting electricity. Now Yet-Ming Chiang and colleagues at MIT’s Materials Science Lab have solved that problem by doping it with a tiny amount of a suitable metal, such as niobium.
So far, they have been able to…
