Navigating the minefield of battery literature

Battery research is often focused on candidate materials that result in the most promising battery performance numbers, which makes it vital that findings are accurately reported. This paper discusses a number of errors that often occur in the battery literature, which impact reproducibility. The field of battery research is highly active with an ever-increasing number of publications. This makes it extremely challenging for researchers to stay on top of the latest developments. In addition, and particularly challenging for those new to the battery field, a number of fundamental errors or inaccuracies frequently occur in published papers, creating additional barriers to understanding an already complicated field. Such errors and inaccuracies are potentially problematic given how battery research is focused toward those materials with promising performance metrics, which subsequently influences where research efforts are placed. This discussion seeks to clarify a few such recurring errors and inaccuracies, including electrolyte ideality, ion conduction and transference, Sand's time and lithium-dendrite, cycle number and reversibility, and capacity and energy calculations. This discussion is intended to encourage researchers to follow rigorous reporting standards when publishing their battery research, which will help to ensure that findings can be reproduced by others.

Automated summary

This paper highlights common errors in battery literature, emphasizes the importance of accurately reporting research findings, and encourages researchers to follow rigorous reporting standards.