Topic: Beyond Lithium-Ion Batteries: Materials and Mechanisms for Sustainable Energy Storage

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have long served as the cornerstone of portable electronics and electric vehicles. However, the surging global demand for energy storage is increasingly straining lithium resources and exposing the inherent performance limitations of current intercalation-based chemistries. To address these challenges, the scientific community is actively exploring "beyond lithium-ion" (BLI) technologies. These emerging systems aim to surpass the energy density ceilings of LIBs, utilize earth-abundant elements, and fundamentally improve safety through the development of novel battery architectures and chemistries.

This Special Topic focuses on the forefront of research in post-LIB technologies, encompassing multivalent metal-ion batteries (e.g., Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Zn²⁺, Al³⁺), alkali-metal alternatives (Na⁺, K⁺), and revolutionary designs such as lithium-metal (e.g., Li-S, Li-air) and solid-state batteries that transcend conventional lithium-ion mechanisms. These promising candidates offer distinct advantages in terms of material abundance, cost-effectiveness, and theoretical capacity. Nevertheless, their practical implementation is frequently hindered by complex electrochemical behaviors, including sluggish reaction kinetics of multivalent charge carriers, irreversible side reactions, dendrite formation, and stringent requirements for forming stable solid-electrolyte interphases (SEIs).

This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive platform for reporting innovative materials strategies and fundamental mechanistic understandings that are pivotal for advancing these technologies. We invite contributions that address critical challenges across the following dimensions:

(1) the design of novel electrode and electrolyte materials for multivalent and alkali-metal systems;

(2) in-depth mechanistic investigations into ion transport, interfacial evolution, and degradation processes using advanced characterization techniques and computational modeling;

(3) engineering solutions for cell configurations and manufacturing processes tailored to next-generation energy storage systems.

Beyond lithium-ion batteries, multivalent batteries, sodium-ion batteries, potassium-ion batteries, metal-air batteries, solid-state batteries, electrode materials, electrolyte engineering, interfacial mechanisms, reaction kinetics, energy density, earth-abundant materials