Indium is a soft metal that you can cut with a knife, and easily hammer into shape. The silvery-white material leaves a visible line when rubbed on paper, and makes a sound when someone bends it. Indium provides a transparent, conductive coating to glass, and plays a role in manufacture of solar panels. Researchers at Cornell University discovered indium lets batteries charge much faster while holding their storage longer.
Lithium Alloy Anodes on Indium Speed Charging
The Cornell team discovered plating lithium on indium anodes produces “excellent fast charging capabilities” in a range of electrolytes. Their summary report (see link below) highlights these two achievements:
- Demonstrating the stability and reversibility of their novel charging method.
- Achieving fast charging, slow discharging batteries including lithium-ion-phosphate.
This is yet another one of the discoveries we wonder will ever yield practical results we can touch. The Independent advises the Cornell researchers hope their discovery “could help the widespread adoption of electric vehicles”. Apparently, they believe their batteries could be cheaper, and lead to other discoveries too.
But that’s not all. The Cornell team are also excitedly exchanging ideas for building smaller, more efficient batteries. Although they also admit that indium metal is heavy, and they need more time to look for other options too.
There’s More to Indium Than Meets the Eye
While we now know that indium lets batteries charge faster, and retain their charges longer, there’s more to the metal we need to share. Indium is one of the rarest elements in Earth’s crust. Although it exists in greater abundance in meteorites.
This is the basis for the theory that a giant meteorite wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The rare metal is sparsely present in natural form on Earth in anosmium alloy in sulfide layers. Most mining occurs in Canada, Russia, and South Africa in mafic igneous rocks.
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