Holy Grails in Chemistry: Investigating and Understanding Fast Electron/Cation Coupled Transport within Inorganic Ionic Matrices

Typically, power and energy are competing concepts in electrochemical energy storage, where one can be optimized only at the expense of the other. However, the specialized and diverse needs of new applications exceed the functional boundaries of existing battery chemistries, where both high power and high energy content are critical. The needed battery paradigms may not be realized by optimization of previous electrochemical energy storage technologies but rather require new basic science breakthroughs involving new materials chemistry. Here we propose that fundamental understanding of electron/cation coupled transport within inorganic ionic matrices is a holy grail that can potentially transform the energy storage landscape.