Breakthroughs for batteries could soon make them much better

May 20th 2026|6 min readLIKE ANY champion who spends too long at the top, the lithium-ion battery is stagnating. Over decades as the battery of choice in everything from smartphones to electric cars and drones, its design has been tweaked countless times to improve its energy density and performance. But, some scientists say, those improvements are approaching their theoretical limits. Even the best models are prone to dying out in the cold, rapidly losing capacity or—as is the case for those in household devices—spontaneously catching fire.This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Charging ahead”From the May 23rd 2026 editionDiscover stories from this section and more in the list of contents⇒Explore the edition