Energy & Green Tech

Engineers create solution to cheaper, longer lasting battery packs

An electrical engineer at The University of Toledo, who nearly died as a girl in Africa because of a hospital's lack of power, has developed a new energy storage solution to make battery packs in electric vehicles, satellites, ...

Energy & Green Tech

The role of energy density for grid-scale batteries

Because the sun does not shine at night but all our screens do, we need energy storage to shift solar energy production during the day to when it is needed in the evening. To cope with this intermittence of renewables, we ...

Energy & Green Tech

Production of 'post-lithium-ion batteries' requires new skills

Research on manufacturing battery cells is gaining momentum—and there is a strong need, considering the future demand for energy storage: For the year 2030, global production of rechargeable batteries will double from today's ...

Energy & Green Tech

New 'blue-green' solution for recycling world's batteries

Rice University researchers literally have a solution to deal with the glut of used lithium-ion batteries left behind by the ever-increasing demand for electric vehicles, cellphones and other electronic devices.

Energy & Green Tech

Researchers show advance in next-generation lithium metal batteries

A Washington State University research team has developed a way to address a major safety issue with lithium metal batteries—an innovation that could make high-energy batteries more viable for next-generation energy storage.

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Ion

An ion is an atom or molecule where the total number of electrons is not equal to the total number of protons, giving it a net positive or negative electrical charge.

Since protons are positively charged and electrons are negatively charged, if there are more electrons than protons, the atom or molecule will be negatively charged. This is called an anion (pronounced /ˈænaɪən/; an-eye-on), from the Greek ἀνά (ana), meaning 'up'.

Conversely, if there are more protons than electrons, the atom or molecule will be positively charged. This is called a cation (pronounced /ˈkætaɪən/; cat-eye-on), from the Greek κατά (kata), meaning 'down'.

An ion consisting of a single atom is called a monatomic ion. If it consists of two or more atoms, it is called a polyatomic ion. Polyatomic ions containing oxygen, such as carbonate and sulfate, are called oxyanions.

When writing the chemical formula for an ion, its charge is written as a superscript '+' or '−' following a number indicating the difference between the number of protons and the number of electrons. The number is omitted if it is equal to 1. For example, the sodium cation is written as Na+, the '+' indicating that it has one less electron than it has protons. The sulfate anion is written as SO42−, the '2−' indicating that it has two more electrons than it has protons.

If an ion contains unpaired electrons, it is called a radical ion. Just like neutral radicals, radical ions are very reactive.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA