It is safe to say that the vast majority of rechargeable batteries found in our phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches, cars, and etc. rely on lithium-ion batteries. This has been the case for a while now, despite the fact that lithium-ion batteries are dangerous as they do have the potential of exploding.
However it looks like the engineers at Toyota have figured out a way to swap out lithum for the use of magnesium, thus making batteries smaller and more powerful. This was discovered by principal scientist and chemical engineer Rana Mohtadi and it was also pretty accidental by nature.
She had overheard a conversation from her colleagues about the challenges of developing a magnesium-friendly electrolyte, and it so happens that the hydrogen storage material project that she is working on could address said challenges, and together they decided to form a team to see if their theory would work, and it turn that it does.
Now before you get too excited, note that Toyota’s engineers reckon that it will probably be 20 years before magnesium-based batteries become mainstream, but it is a step in the right direction. Toyota isn’t alone in battery research either as we have seen in the past, many other scientists and engineers have come up with unique ways to creating safe, smaller, and more efficient batteries, but unfortunately none of them have really made it to the market yet.