Researchers hope the breakthroughs could help the widespread adoption of electric vehicles, including by making them cheaper, as well as the development of other more sustainable ways of using technology.

One project from Cornell University has found that indium – a material mostly used to create coatings for displays and solar panels – could also allow for batteries that charge quickly and keep their storage. It has a particular combination that allows it to charge up quickly, but not lose that charge.

The scientists suggest that the new finding could make batteries smaller and more efficient, especially when compared with other technologies such as charging built into roadways, in a new paper, 'Fast-Charge, Long-Duration Storage in Lithium Batteries', published in the journal Joule.