Why Lithium-ion Batteries Still Dominate the Tech World

By Haley Zaremba - Oct 13, 2025

• Despite their widespread use, many aspects of lithium-ion battery design have been based on trial and error, with a limited understanding of the underlying physical and chemical processes.
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• A recent MIT study has identified coupled ion-electron transfer as the governing process for lithium-ion intercalation during charging, a discovery that could lead to the development of faster-charging and more controlled battery models.
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• While lithium-ion batteries face environmental and geopolitical challenges, and alternative technologies are emerging, scientific advancements like those at MIT are helping to maintain lithium's dominance due to its energy density and performance.
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Lithium-ion batteries power the world. You probably have at least one – but probably two or three – within reach right this very moment. Lithium-ion batteries power a whopping 70 percent of all rechargeable devices, ranging in size and scope from electric vehicles to smartphones to utility-scale energy storage. But while the technology has become nearly ubiquitous in our daily lives, there is still a lot that we still don’t understand about the physical and chemical processes that power lithium-ion batteries.

Until now, many aspects of lithium-ion battery design have been arrived at through trial and error. Researchers have tweaked electrodes and electrolytes and taken note of which configurations produce increased energy, power, charge speed, and battery life, and used these discoveries to lead design processes without fully understanding the science behind them.

While we understand on a basic level what happens when a lithium-ion battery recharges, there is a lot about the reaction that remains unknown. The reaction itself is relatively simple, and can take place in a liquid solution or a solid electrode. Either way, lithium ions start in electrolyte form and then “intercalate” or insert themselves into the solution or the electrode, as the case may be, while the battery is discharging. When charging, the ions de-intercalate and return to the electrolyte. This process repeats itself thousands of times over the lifespan of a battery.

“The amount of power that the battery can generate, and how quickly it can charge, depend on how fast this reaction happens,” says MIT News in an article published earlier this month. “However, little is known about the exact mechanism of this reaction, or the factors that control its rate.”

But a new MIT study is trying to change that by observing rates of intercalation in varying battery types and meticulously documenting the specific conditions that facilitate these reactions. The scientists have found that the intercalation process that charges lithium-ion batteries is governed by yet another process – coupled ion-electron transfer. This means that an electron travels alongside the lithium-ion into the electrode. This finding could help scientists design better and faster charging battery models. 

“What we hope is enabled by this work is to get the reactions to be faster and more controlled, which can speed up charging and discharging,” Martin Bazant, Chevron Professor of Chemical Engineering and a professor of mathematics at MIT, told MIT News. In combination with other work on lithium-ion batteries’ power and lifespan, these findings could lead to much more sophisticated battery design.

This breakthrough could potentially ensure that lithium-ion batteries maintain their dominance in the tech industry at a time when other technologies are quickly gaining ground. Lithium-ion batteries, while incredibly useful, are associated with a litany of negative externalities. Extraction and production of lithium is environmentally damaging and resource-intensive. It’s also geopolitically fraught, as China controls a huge portion of global lithium supply chains. Because of these downsides, investment has been increasing in research and development of alternative battery types, including proton batteries, sodium ion batteries, and quantum batteries. 

But unseating lithium will be hard to do, especially with scientific advancements like those playing out at MIT. Lithium is just too useful to get rid of. The element is extremely energy-dense and performs well in cold weather, making it “indispensable for high-performance applications” according to EV World. As such, some of the most promising lithium-ion alternatives are still lithium-based, like lithium-iron and solid state batteries. 

Ultimately, it’s likely that the green energy transition will rely on an all-of-the-above approach to battery design. As EV World sums up, “the future isn’t lithium or sodium—it’s both, deployed strategically across sectors…the result is a diversified, resilient battery economy.”

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com