Alkaline batteries are cheaper and less prone to fire than lithium-ion batteries, and the only drawback is that they cannot be recharged. However, startup Ionic Materials will be released on August 3, a new breakthrough, found that make solid alkaline batteries such as lithium-ion batteries storage technology alternatives, applied directly to the PC, smartphone or electric vehicles.

The new technology, invented by Ionic, allows alkaline batteries to recharge, with a prototype that can charge up to 400 charges, the New York times reported Monday. Ionic founder and materials scientist Mike Zimmerman said, the company developed alkaline batteries, the current is heavy than on the market of lithium battery, but its cost advantage and better storage capacity, will make it up. More than that, the key material for lithium batteries is cobalt, which is toxic not only to the environment, but also to a number of mines in Africa that use child labor to collect cobalt. Alkaline batteries, by contrast, use relatively rich deposits of zinc and manganese.

In addition, Ionic has modified the design of alkaline batteries to replace zinc with more affordable aluminum. In the past, aluminum because of the easy corrosion problem, has not been adopted, if alkaline batteries can really for aluminum material, then have the opportunity to lighter than lithium battery, weight will be cheaper than the current market condition of alkaline batteries.

Ionic plans to announce the results of the study at the 35th anniversary meeting of the Rocky Mountain Institute, an energy research group, on August 3, the report said.

If alkaline batteries can recharge, there will be many benefits, but John Goodenough, the father of lithium batteries, is not a fuel-efficient lamp. Goodenough has 94 - year - old, but still, he has led the University of Texas in March (the University of Texas at Austin) team, to create "solid-state" (all - solid - state) lithium batteries, not only is more secure, or 3 times as big as capacity, and as long as several minutes can be recharged, don't like once upon a time, wait for a few hours.