THE NEWS:
A raft of startups is working on batteries made with silicon anodes, which promise 20-40% improvements in energy storage. That means longer lasting phones and more mileage for EVs.
TELL ME ABOUT SILICON-ANODES:
You can get the full rundown here. But basically, anodes hold the charge inside a battery. Most lithium-ion batteries are made with graphite anodes, which does a decent job at holding charge. Silicon can do better — it can hold about 3x more energy.
Of course, there's a catch. Silicon isn't easy to work with for a whole host of reasons, and that's where startups come in.
Companies like the billion-dollar Sila Nanotechnologies and Peter Thiel-backed Advano are developing a handful of different approaches to tame silicon, which you can read about in the story.
(Read the full blog post at Business Insider)