Passport To Better Batteries

T he global lithium-ion battery supply chain is set to grow by almost 30% a year until 2030, according to McKinsey Battery Insights to reach a value of more than US$400bn and a market size of 4.7TWh.Batteries, particularly lithium-ion batteries, are increasingly required to power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles -and to store the growing share of energy produced by renewables.But growing demand also brings a problem.More than 50 critical minerals and other raw materials make up the components of a lithiumion battery, of which the most important are the two electrodes and the electrolyte that separates them.In a lithium-ion battery, the cathode is made from a combination of lithium and several other elements, often nickel and cobalt, while the anode is made from graphite.The electrolyte is usually a lithium-based salt dissolved in an organic solvent.And yet for