Abundant and Non-toxic Materials for Batteries

This special topic is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the discovery of LiFePO₄ in honor of Prof. John B. Goodenough, and presents the most recent progress on abundant and non-toxic materials for batteries.

In 1997, Nobel Laureate John B. Goodenough and his team reported lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO₄) as a promising cathode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with abundant raw materials, low cost, and environmental friendliness. Especially with the widespread use of energy storage devices in electric vehicles, portable devices, and home battery storage, there is an urgent call for abundant and non-toxic materials. Therefore, new types of rechargeable batteries, such as sodium-ion, potassium-ion, aluminum-ion, magnesium-ion, calcium-ion, and zinc-manganese oxide batteries, are regarded as the next generation energy storage systems. Recent developments mainly focus on inorganic and organic materials for cathodes, anodes, and electrolytes (liquid, solid, semisolid, high-temperature molten salts), aqueous and nonaqueous battery systems, electrochemical analysis, and corresponding synthesis and characterization methods. Researchers have made great efforts on the development of low-cost and ecofriendly energy storage systems, and interdisciplinary fusion is the trend in the field, including materials science, energy storage, biology, chemistry, physics, nanotechnology, information science, etc.