Solid State Batteries

Did you know that pacemakers and some wearable devices use solid state batteries? What are solid state batteries you may ask.

A lithium ion battery consists of an anode and cathode with a liquid electrolyte between them, allowing the lithium ions to flow from the anode to the cathode upon discharge. This causes an external current to flow which powers things such as your mobile phone or an electric vehicle. During charging the opposite happens whereby the lithium ions move from the cathode to the anode due to an external current being applied. Imagine that this liquid electrolyte is now a solid. Why would we want to do this?

Adding a solid electrolyte has the advantage of being more energy dense, which means your phone could last for longer than barely one day on a full charge! They are safer, more environmentally friendly and could allow faster charging which is great when we want to drive electric vehicles.

This video shows the current state of the art solid state battery by Samsung and we are hoping to see this in electric vehicles such as Toyota by as early as 2021!