
Magnesium batteries could be safer and more efficient than lithium - doener
https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/01/magnesium-batteries-safer-more-efficient-than-lithium/
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ak39
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44z88XG_esk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44z88XG_esk)

Promising.

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Kiella
Wow, we need to improve this idea and put technology on new level.
[https://blendberg.com/pl/gotowe-bazy-wedlug-miast-
bytom/](https://blendberg.com/pl/gotowe-bazy-wedlug-miast-bytom/)

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ScottBurson
Before this technology can see wide use, I think they will need to find a
solid electrolyte that doesn't use scandium. Although the mean concentration
of scandium in the earth's crust is about the same as that of cobalt,
concentrated ores are much rarer [0].

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandium#Occurrence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandium#Occurrence)

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lj3
What about Toyota's electrolyte? Mg(CB11H12)2/tetraglyme (MMC/G4)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26013580](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26013580)

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geuis
Am I missing the end of the article? I’m on my phone and it just seems to cut
off after this paragraph with no “Read More” thing.

“The researchers settled on magnesium scandium selenide spinel, which has an
ion mobility comparable to electrolytes found in lithium ion batteries. The
team included scientists from MIT and Argonne, who provided computing
resources and experimental confirmation of the new solid electrolyte's
mobility, respectively.”

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rurban
Because Engadget linking to Nature in their unique way.

[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01772-1](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01772-1)

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StreamBright
We desperately need a revolution in storing energy. I have big hopes towards
magnesium batteries

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Robotbeat
Honestly, we don't. Folks like Tesla/Panasonic and LGChem are only like 10-30%
cost improvement away from being able to compete everywhere. And energy
densities are also pretty good on well-engineered battery packs. Good enough
for everything but long haul aircraft IMHO.

Evolution, not revolution.

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StreamBright
We don't? If battery capacity was developing the same pace as CPU performance
you would charge your iPhone once a year.

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dTal
That's about 10 megajoules, which would make faulty battery explosions very
exciting!

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StreamBright
This is why we need a revolution not a minor improvement, I think. :)

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desireco42
Could be, would be. I get it takes a while to bring things to mass market, but
most of the time advances are overblown by news reporters and never
materialize.

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jwatte
How do I create a highly leveraged long position in scandium commodities?

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nerfhammer
figure out what publicly traded companies mine it and do a margin buy

mining companies usually trade on a multiple of the commodity in any event, so
you don't even really have to do a margin buy

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pmoriarty
The problem with that is that these companies may fail for all sorts of
reasons that have nothing to do with the scarcity or demand for the commodity
itself.

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SturgeonsLaw
Put together a basket of such companies and invest a bit in each, weighted by
risk or perceived potential payoff, or whatever criteria you see fit

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alexanderstears
This is interesting, but it seems like sodium is the best alternative to
lithium. Sure, there's a voltage trade-off, but the abundance of sodium is
super compelling.

Unfortunately, I don't think humanity can count on a silver bullet to bring
about an energy revolution. We'll need lead bullets: everything we can bring
to bear on solving the problems.

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ScottBurson
Sea water also has plenty of magnesium. It's the scandium in the electrolyte
that is likely to be the limiting resource, unless they can find another
electrolyte.

