Overturning nearly a century of a scientific dogma, Oregon State University chemists have now shown that potassium could potentially replace rare, costly lithium in a new potassium-ion battery.The findings are important, the researchers say, because they open some new alternatives for batteries that can work with well-established, inexpensive graphite as the anode (the high-energy reservoir of electrons).Lithium is quite rare, found in only 0.0017 percent, by weight, of the Earth’s crust. Because of that, it’s comparatively expensive, and also difficult to recycle.
A battery alternative to costly, rare lithium
