Smart separators improve lithium safety

Getting pore size and quantity right is key, says Porous Power

"Safe battery" is an oxymoron. The very act of harnessing energy always entails some degree of risk. In the 1800s, steam engine boilers exploded. In the early 1900s, people debated the safety of flammable gasoline as auto fuel. Today, some question whether lithium-ion batteries even belong in cars. But just as leaps in technology and design alleviated concerns over steam boilers and petrol-powered automobiles in previous eras, so too are significant new advances in lithium's promising but volatile technology beginning to assuage its . . .