Some people say that the key to new energy technologies is batteries . Indeed, whether it is a new energy vehicle, or other electronic products such as mobile phones, or even emerging drones, batteries are one of the most important factors restricting product performance. In order to achieve a breakthrough in the field of batteries, whether it is the battery as a whole, or the various components of the battery, are the focus of research and development by researchers. New technologies and new materials are therefore constantly being applied.

The National Institute of Materials Science and Technology of Japan recently announced that it has developed a new type of lithium battery with a very high energy density, and calls this new type of lithium battery a "lithium-air battery." The energy density per unit volume is almost close to the limit. Cost can also be well controlled. According to the organization, the "lithium-air battery" uses carbon nanotubes as the air electrode material. Through the optimization of the electrode structure, it can achieve a high energy density, which is 15 times that of ordinary lithium batteries. Researchers of the organization said that the current "lithium-air battery" is only a test product and will continue to optimize the design in the future to further increase the energy density.

　　Battery life is one of the most important measures. Claimed to be the world's first solar-charged mobile phone battery came out recently. This battery is called Hybbi and is mainly composed of lithium batteries and solar modules. This charging method has extremely low energy loss and is twice as efficient as other solar charging products. The Hybbi solar panel is covered with gorilla glass, using a laser cutting process, the thickness is less than 1mm. In the case of direct sunlight, the charging speed can reach 20% of the electricity per hour.

At the same time, new technologies have also been applied to the development of battery materials. Toyota Motor recently announced that it will invest US $ 35 million in research and development of new energy battery materials in the next four years. In Toyota's view, artificial intelligence will become a key way to find materials for the future of new energy. As a new method, a computing model based on artificial intelligence has been recently applied to the research of materials science. It may take decades to find new materials manually, but by incorporating artificial intelligence technology into the computing model, this process can be accelerated.

　Inspired by the tree structure, engineers at the University of Maryland modified the wood and used it as a special structure for the negative electrode of the lithium metal battery, in order to avoid battery failure caused by certain key factors. They proposed a new design that stores the lithium ions in the battery in the natural channels used to transport water and nutrients in the wood. The battery produced in this way is very safe and can be quickly charged and discharged.