Calcium can replace lithium in batteries that store solar and wind energy. A new synthetic chemical may pave the way for the manufacture of calcium based batteries, which are cheaper than current lithium-based batteries.

Lithium ion batteries in mobile phones and other electronic devices have many disadvantages: they not only sometimes catch fire, but also rely on increasingly scarce and toxic substances such as lithium and cobalt. Made of lithium, the anode is more durable than the battery. But scientists who study calcium batteries lack the proper electrolyte, the medium for charge flow inside the battery.

Zhirong Zhao Karger of the ulmhimholtz Institute in Germany and his colleagues reacted a calcium compound with a fluorine-containing compound to create a new type of calcium salt. The conductivity of this material is higher than that of any calcium based electrolyte reported so far. It can also conduct ions effectively at higher voltages than other calcium based electrolytes.

In a recent study published in the Journal of energy and environmental science, the authors suggest that calcium based batteries have broad application space and can be used in industrial scale wind and solar energy storage systems in the future.