Battery science heats up
Research and industry deals jumped in March — a quantum‑battery paper in Light: Science & Applications reported ‘superextensive’ electrical power delivery, a lab step toward denser storage quantum battery paper. Commercialization moves followed with Korea’s Posco Future M partnering with US battery materials firm Sila to co‑develop silicon‑anode and solid‑state materials aimed at next‑gen EV cells Posco–Sila tie‑up.
Kieran Hymas and colleagues published "Superextensive electrical power from a quantum battery" in Light: Science & Applications (2026, DOI 10.1038/s41377-026-02240-6), reporting the first experimental demonstration of steady‑state superextensive light‑to‑charge conversion in a microcavity quantum‑battery architecture. preview-www.nature.com The paper shows a resonant microcavity with integrated charge‑transport layers produced an electrical discharge power that scaled super‑linearly under low‑intensity, incoherent illumination and enabled a full charge‑discharge cycle via strong light–matter coupling. preview-www.nature.com That result builds on a recent preprint from CSIRO, RMIT and the University of Melbourne that demonstrated a room‑temperature, multilayer organic‑microcavity quantum battery with superextensive charging and metastable energy storage. alphaxiv.org POSCO Future M signed a memorandum of understanding with Sila Nanotechnologies on March 11 at COEX in Seoul, a ceremony attended by POSCO's Hong Young‑jun and Sila co‑founder/CTO Gleb Yushin. koreaherald.com The MOU commits POSCO to combine its cathode/anode and carbon‑materials expertise with Sila’s silicon‑anode technology—explicitly exploring carbon nanomaterials to suppress silicon’s volume expansion during cycling, POSCO said in a press release. en.infomaxai.com Sila, which shipped its first commercial silicon anode in 2021 and opened an automotive‑scale Moses Lake, Washington plant in September 2025, also reported a recent $375 million funding close as it ramps production of its Titan Silicon anode material. silanano.com
