SoylentNews

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

India Develops the World's First Iron-ion Battery

A research team from India's IIT (Institute of Technology) Madras has officially developed the world's first iron-ion battery, which promises a low-cost stable alternative to the existing mainstream lithium-ion battery.

[...] Compared to the traditional lithium ion batteries, the newly developed batteries from IIT are much more cost effective, and features slightly better storage capacity and stability. The iron-ion batteries are also much more safe to use, due to the inability of iron to produce dendrites, which prevents a short circuit from happening when the electricity is discharged, according to the research team's findings.

[...] Despite having some noticeable advantages over lithium ion batteries, the newly developed iron ion batteries will still need to undergo further optimization and testing, as the research team's findings have showed that it is only capable of 150 cycles of charging and discharging for the time being. At the present stage, the energy density of the battery is also only able to reach around 220 Wh/kilo, which is only around 55-60% of the 350 Wh/kilo of energy density for lithium-ion battery.

Still requires vanadium, a relatively rare element, but it's six times as common as lithium

Also at IIT and Popular Mechanics.

Original Submission