Credit: Image courtesy of Sarah Tolbert, University of California, Los Angeles
Battery electrodes made of a molybdenum disulfide nanocrystal composite have internal pathways to allow lithium ions to move quickly through the electrode, speeding up the rate that the battery can charge. The key features in the structure that enable the flow of the lithium ions are the small, 20-40 nanometer, diameter of the nanocrystals (in contrast, human hairs are about 100,000 nanometers in diameter) coupled with the porosity and planar lamellar pathways shown in the electron micrograph.