André Taylor (2014-2015 MLK Visiting Associate Professor) and his colleagues at MIT (the Yang Shao-Horn group) believe that a laser analysis technique known as Raman spectroscopy can answer many questions about lithium-air batteries, whose chemistry has proven hard to understand.

The team’s paper “Raman Spectroscopy in Lithium–Oxygen Battery Systems” was designated a “Very Important Paper” by the editor of ChemElectroChem and made the journal’s October 2015 print-edition cover for its special issue on “In Situ Monitoring”. The paper was previously published in the journal’s July 2015 online edition.

If lithium-air batteries live up to their promise, we could one day be driving electric cars 500 miles or more without recharging, or using laptops for weeks without having to plug in. They could also replace lithium-ion batteries, currently the standard in many consumer electronics.

“This is a powerful technology,” says Taylor, “and we want to get people to see this as a viable technology.”

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