Why does lithium iron phosphate, a candidate for use in future lithium batteries, conduct electricity despite being an insulating material? Chemists at CNRS, working in collaboration with a team from CEA-Liten, have shed light on this paradox. Their experimentally verified “domino-cascade model†shows that local stresses within the material allow electrical and ionic conduction to spread from one area to the next, making the battery function. These results, published in the August issue of Nature Materials, open new horizons in the search for improved battery electrode materials and help explain how tomorrow’s electric car batteries work.
To learn more, please consult the CNRS press release.