OAK RIDGE, TN—Engineers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a thin, flexible, solid-state electrolyte that may double energy storage for next-generation electric vehicles and portable electronic devices. The durable sheets of solid-state electrolytes could enable scalable production of batteries with higher energy density electrodes.

By separating negative and positive electrodes, they would prevent dangerous electrical shorts while providing high-conduction paths for ion movement. This could lead to greater safety, performance and energy density compared to today’s batteries that use liquid electrolytes, which are flammable, chemically reactive, thermally unstable and prone to leakage.