For more than a decade, scientists have tried to improve lithium-based batteries by replacing the graphite in one terminal with silicon, which can store 10 times more charge. But after just a few charge/discharge cycles, the silicon structure would crack and crumble, rendering the battery useless.

Now a team led by materials scientist Yi Cui of Stanford and SLAC has found a solution: a cleverly designed double-walled that lasts more than 6,000 cycles, far more than needed by or mobile electronics.

“This is a very exciting development toward our goal of creating smaller, lighter and longer-lasting batteries than are available today,” Cui said. The results were published March 25 in Nature Nanotechnology.

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