il 2006 Sony, Lenovo and Dell encountered battery problems and had to do a major product recall. The problem becomes more acute in applications requiring relatively large amounts of energy to be stored, electric vehicles being one example. Nonflammable electrolytes including polymer electrolytes are proposed as one solution. Petrol can be pretty explosive too, SO this is one of those technical problems that can almost certainly be solved once industrial disincentives to innovate (sunk investment in petrol engine development) have evaporated. Similar industrial disincentives exist in the telecommunications industry. RF power-amplifier vendors for example are understandably reluctant to produce wideband amplifiers that mean six amplifiers are replaced with one amplifier, particularly if the unit cost stays the same. But back to chemistry. Interestingly, electrochemical reactions at the nanoscale are different from electrochemical reactions at the macroscale. This opens up opportunities to use new or different materials. The small particle size of nanoscale materials allows short diffusion distances that means that active materials act faster. A larger surface area allows for faster absorption of lithium ions and increased reactivity without structural deterioration. Shape changing includes structural change or surface modification, sometimes described as flaky surface morphology. A shape or surface change can increase volumetric capacity and/or increase charge and discharge rates. For example, carbon nanotubes have been proposed as anodes. Silicon is a possible anode material with high capacity in terms of mAh/g, though the capacity fades quickly during initial cycling and the silicon can exhibit large changes in volume through the charge/discharge cycle. Film-based structures might mitigate these effects. Conventional thinking suggests that electrode materials must be electronically conducting with crystallographic voids through which lithium ions can diffuse. This is known as intercalation chemistry - the inclusi