We are so accustomed to looking towards the future for answers to modern challenges that we sometimes forget many contemporary technological breakthroughs are rooted in the past—much like those inventions dating back to the Enlightenment. This new technology confirms once again that looking to the past can sometimes help us build a better world for the generations to come.
One such ancestor was Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, the phonograph, and other technologies we now take for granted. However, as with any prolific inventor, not all his ideas stood the test of time. In 1901, for instance, he introduced a nickel-iron (Ni-Fe) battery designed to last a lifetime, during an era when electric cars actually outnumbered those with internal combustion engines.
Edison’s battery was robust, affordable, promised a 150 km range, and was incredibly durable. Yet, it had one major flaw: its charging speed was painstakingly slow. The low conductivity of nickel meant that charging and discharging took countless hours, leading to pistons eventually winning the battle against electrodes. Fortunately, science has found a solution to this century-old problem in an unexpected field: biomimicry.
The fundamental breakthrough, presented by the team at UCLA and their collaborators, lies not just in the chemistry, but in an architecture inspired by biomineralisation—the natural process by which structures like human bones are formed. In nature, proteins act as biological “scaffolds” or templates that precisely dictate where minerals are deposited to create resilient tissues.
The researchers replicated this principle by using proteins as design templates to guide the formation of tiny metal clusters—nickel and iron—with atomic precision. By mimicking the way the body grows a bone matrix, the scientists enabled the metallic particles to organise themselves into structures optimised for energy flow.
Once these clusters are formed using the protein “mould,” they are attached to a two-dimensional material consisting of sheets just one atom thick. This creates an aerogel that is 99% air. Since a larger surface area results in higher conductivity, the structure forms an ultra-connected network that transmits electrons at high speeds. While the underlying science is advanced, the researchers maintain they use basic compounds and straightforward synthesis processes.
Thanks to this breakthrough, they’ve achieved remarkable results in the laboratory. The prototype they’ve developed charges in a few seconds and’s managed to resist more than twelve thousand charge and discharge cycles—the equivalent of thirty years of use.
While these results are promising, the technology does face certain trade-offs. Beyond laboratory conditions, the primary hurdle is its lower energy density; it requires a much larger volume to store the same amount of energy as a lithium-ion battery. This makes it less ideal for mobile phones or EVs where space is limited, but the outlook changes for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)—large, stationary installations.
If space isn’t a problem, the Ni-Fe battery could position itself as the queen of renewable energy storage. Here, the great challenge isn’t the weight of the batteries or their dimensions, but the stability of the grid and the life-cycle cost. In summary, nickel-iron batteries present great competitive advantages for stationary storage:
- Prolonged useful life. They can operate for more than 30 years without losing hardly any capacity.
- High safety. By using a non-flammable alkaline electrolyte, they don’t run the risk of suffering fires.
- Abundance of materials. Iron’s one of the most abundant elements in the Earth’s crust, which reduces strategic dependence on scarce metals like cobalt.
The capacity of these batteries to absorb energy peaks in a matter of seconds makes them ideal for managing the intermittency of renewables. For example, by integrating into a smart grid, they could stabilise the electrical flow of an entire city and store the solar surplus from midday to return it instantly during the nighttime demand peak.
Regarding these supply and demand curves, we recommend that you watch the video about the camel’s hump and the duck’s neck that heads this section. Yes, believe it or not, those animals are related to the energy market.
We don’t know if Edison’s invention in its biomimetic reincarnation will become a standard technology, but it’s certainly part of an unstoppable trend such as the use of batteries applied to renewable energy storage. If you want to know what a park of mega-batteries capable of fulfilling that purpose looks like, take a look at this article.
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David is a journalist specializing in innovation. From his early days as a mobile technology analyst to his latest role as Country Manager at Terraview, an AI-driven startup focused on viticulture, he has always been closely linked to innovation and emerging technologies.
He contributes to El Confidencial and cultural outlets such as Frontera D and El Estado Mental, driven by the belief that the human and the technological can—and should—go hand in hand.