We are going to need smaller, safer, longer-lasting batteries if we’re to make the most of renewable energy, drive electric vehicles across Australia or go further into space.
Associate Professor Neeraj Sharma from UNSW is working to get the chemistry mix just right. “The electrodes in these new batteries eventually dissolve, like sugar in tea,” he says.

“So, we’re playing with the chemistry to stop the parts dissolving.”
Associate Professor Sharma says the ultimate battery design will need to be tailored to different applications like:

• electric vehicle batteries that outlive the rest of the vehicle
• phones that need to be charged once a year
• batteries so thin and small they can be implanted under the skin for animal tracking
• cheap, small batteries that power vast arrays of environmental sensors to tell us where bushfires are travelling in remote areas.

Neeraj Sharma joins John Stanley.

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