The rechargeable, room-temperature stable battery was made possible using a rare earth-based battery electrolyte that harnesses hydride ions, or negatively charged hydrogen ions.

Experimental data shows that the battery’s specific capacity – or the amount of electrical charge it can store per unit of mass or volume – is up to six times higher than that of some conventional lithium-ion batteries.

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“We further constructed a multilayer stacked battery to increase the battery voltage to 1.9V, which successfully lit a yellow LED light, demonstrating that a hydride ion battery can be used to power electrical devices,” the team said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature on September 17.

“With a wide range of hydride materials for selection and optimisation, rechargeable hydride ion batteries would offer more opportunities for various applications in clean energy storage and conversion.”

Conventional lithium batteries use positively-charged lithium atoms to store and release energy.

Hydride ions are formed when a hydrogen atom gains an extra electron. As a negative charge carrier, hydride ions are more energetic and reactive than positively-charged ions such as the lithium ion.

The “fundamentally different” electrochemical processes of hydride ions enable the creation of innovative battery technologies.