Batteries are a tough study. We see many different roads being traveled in attempts to reach the Nirvana of the lightest, most powerful energy storage cell ever. We see continuing shortfalls because of the much chemistries that seem never to work out as hoped. Several recent articles, though, showed links that forced your editor into a deep study of battery developments first heard about a decade ago. These involved Yi Cui, Stanford professor and battery guru, silicon electrodes, and a new electrolyte that holds thing together. Presaging recent developments, your editor first heard Yi Cui present at the 2009 CAFE Foundation Electric Aircraft Symposium. Then, he predicted, based on the theoretical limits for silicon-based electrodes in batteries, that we would see 10X (greater energy density than then available) batteries in the not-too-distant future. A decade later, his company Amprius may be edging toward that goal with new funding from Airbus. Since then, Cui, his students and associates have helped boost …
