Battery made from water and clay could be used on Mars

When inserted into the tiniest cracks, water can be used in unexpected ways. A new battery design that relies on small amounts of water confined in layers of clay could eventually offer sustainable energy in places as extreme as Mars.

Vasily Artemov of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and his colleagues built the battery with components similar to conventional batteries, including two electrodes, one with a negative charge and the other with a positive charge. But instead of making these metal electrodes, they used the carbon-based material graphene. Instead of…