The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge. Daniel J. Boorstin Oregon State University researchers in Corvallis, Oregon have worked around an intellectual roadblock they say has kept potassium from serious consideration as a battery material for over eight decades. This could be good news, since potassium is more plentiful and lower cost than lithium, and according to OSU scientists, almost as energetic. Xiulei (David) Ji, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Science at Oregon State University. points out that potassium-ion batteries haven’t been considered since the Hoover administration. Ji said, “For decades, people have assumed that potassium couldn’t work with graphite or other bulk carbon anodes in a battery. That assumption is incorrect.” Seeing around that conventional wisdom opens new alternatives to the lithium used in electrodes of lithium-ion batteries. Even though Li is highly energetic, potassium comes close and may be …