YOUR NEXT CAR WILL BE A VOLT:

Anna Tomaszewska, a chemical engineer at Imperial College London who recently coauthored a review paper on fast-charging lithium-ion batteries, says one possible solution to lithium plating is to add silicon to the anode. Silicon is cheap, abundant, and can change the anode's crystal structure in such a way that makes lithium plating less likely. "Silicon has been particularly popular with the manufacturers because it can also improve the energy capacity of the battery," adds Tomaszewska.

Indeed, many companies, including Tesla, have added silicon or silicon oxide to graphite anodes to squeeze some more energy from their lithium-ion cells. But Enevate, an energy storage company based in Southern California, wants to take graphite out of the picture. For the last 15 years, the company has been perfecting an XFC, or extremely fast charging lithium-ion battery with a pure silicon anode.

Earlier this year, the company's researchers announced that their latest generation of batteries could be charged to 75 percent in just five minutes--without sacrificing energy density. "We can have a fast charge without losing out on energy density because we're using an inexpensive, pure-silicon approach," says Ben Park, Enevate's founder and chief technology officer.

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