How some battery materials expand without cracking
Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - 07:02
in Physics & Chemistry
When you charge a battery, or when you use it, it's not just electricity but also matter that moves around inside. Ions, which are atoms or molecules that have an electric charge, travel from one of the battery's electrodes to the other, making the electrodes shrink and swell. In fact, it's been a longstanding mystery why fairly brittle electrode materials don't crack under the strain of these expansion and contraction cycles.