Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been the primary power source for portable electronics and electric vehicles, and their demand continues to surge, driven by their potential applications in grid-scale energy storage. They remain a crucial component of society in the foreseeable future, with no imminent technology poised to fully replace them. Nonetheless, the increasing demand for LIBs leads to the mounting concern about the future availability of crucial raw materials, notably lithium and cobalt. To illustrate, lithium constitutes an exceedingly small fraction of the Earth's crust (0.0017%) and is heavily concentrated in a few regions with unstable political and economic conditions. Even relatively abundant graphite necessitates export permits from certain production countries. Hence, there is an urgent need to advance current LIBs technologies to achieve higher energy density without compromising lifespan and safety. The imperative to further reduce costs and address raw material challenges for large-scale applications, such as the grid, propels the exploration beyond lithium-ion batteries. Other monovalent secondary batteries (i.e., Na⁺, K⁺) and multivalent batteries (e.g., Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Zn²⁺) can leverage abundant and inexpensive species, providing the option to employ Co- and Ni-free cathodes. Consequently, this symposium is also dedicated to the pursuit of alternative battery technologies. This first part of the symposium delves into the advancements in LIBs and monovalent batteries, such as Na-ion and K-ion batteries. The focus on LIBs centers on enhancing their performance through materials and chemistry innovations, including cathode degradation mitigation, high-energy-density anodes innovation, thick electrode fabrication, and operando analytical methods to study battery materials in practical or closely simulated environments. Within the realm of Na-ion/K-ion batteries, topics of interest include the synthesis of hard-carbon, alloying-type anodes, low-voltage intercalation anodes, and high-capacity cathodes, with a specific emphasis on earth-abundant materials like Fe- and Mn-based cathodes. The symposium's second segment focuses on multivalent batteries, which offer significant advantages in volumetric energy density and are less prone to dendrite formation compared to LIBs. These batteries promote the use of metal anodes to fully realize their potential energy density. However, challenges persist, including metal anode dendrite formation, the absence of stable and wide-voltage window electrolytes, sluggish interface kinetics, the development of ionically insulating layers on metal anode surfaces due to electrolyte decomposition, limited mobility of multivalent ions in solids, and the absence of high-voltage cathodes. We are interested in topics addressing these challenges, such as cathode materials development, electrolyte innovation, and anode-electrolyte interphase engineering. Contributions from both experimental and computational research are welcome and encouraged.

ion-solid interactions surface chemistry