The Lithium-Ion battery is an innovative form of energy technology that relies on standard electrostatics and reduction-oxidation chemistry. These batteries are important in sustainability pursuits, energy portability solutions, and energy advancements in industry applications. This technology serves as an environmental aid by operating with zero direct emissions, while also posing a challenge to the ethics and environmentalism of materials sourcing practices. Raw materials are commonly mined, both industrially and artisanally, across the world using means that threaten the humaneness of battery construction and alter the natural landscape of source locations. In the realm of higher-education academics, this technology can be used to introduce students to chemical synthesis, mechanochemical construction, and analysis techniques while nodding to the broader impacts of their engineering work. This project aims to introduce the STEM fundamentals of lithium-ion battery operation, discuss related technologies to the battery, and present interdisciplinary applications of this technology to academic and technological settings from an ethical and environmentalist perspective.
