A battery’s hopping ions remember where they’ve been

Seen in atomic detail, the seemingly smooth flow of ions through a battery’s electrolyte is surprisingly complicated

22-Feb-2024 - Solid-state batteries store and release charge by nudging ions back and forth between two electrodes. From our usual point of view, the ions flow through the battery’s solid electrolyte like a gentle stream. But when seen on an atomic scale, that smooth flow is an illusion: Individual ions hop ...