The rise of lithium-selenium batteries

The lithium-selenium (Li-Se) battery is an alternative to its sulfur counterpart with some noticeable advantages, such as the significantly higher electrical conductivity of Se and better electrochemical performance. Although the idea of a Li-Se battery dates to the 1960s, over the past four years it has been revisited as a practical potential candidate for electrochemical energy storage. Despite similar problems of Li-Se and lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, such as the so-called shuttle effect, the research strategies go in different directions because of new opportunities offered by the Li-Se batteries. For instance, Li-Se batteries can perform better in the conventional carbonate-based electrolytes, in which polysulfides are chemically unstable. The present manuscript comprehensively reviews the current status of the Li-Se battery based on the achievements during its short history. Furthermore, a promising possibility is the lithium-(sulfur/selenium) battery, utilizing a sulfur/selenium cathode that can gain the advantages of both batteries. Other batteries in this family such as sodium-selenium and magnesium-selenium are also considered.