Can the stuff that protects your teeth find happiness storing electrical energy? Researchers are brushing up on their chemistry to produce a fluoride battery – almost the total opposite of a lithium battery. Three years ago, The Journal of Fluorine Chemistry quibbled, “Only a handful of publications exist on the topic of fluoride ion batteries (FIBs). These are electrochemical cells in which a negative anion—fluoride—enables charge transport. In this review, we will report, for the first time, an extensive theoretical screening of FIBs as well as an analysis of the safety and toxicity of electrochemical couples of such batteries.” It continued with an exploration of high-temperature (150° C, or 302° F) and room-temperature examples of fluoride cells and ended with …
