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  • Open Access

Toward a Drift-Diffusion Device Conceptualization of Alkali-Ion Rocking-Chair Batteries

Kirk H. Bevan1,2,*

  • 1Division of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Québec H3A 0C5, Canada
  • 2Centre for the Physics of Materials, Department of Physics, McGill University, Montréal, Québec H3A 2T8, Canada

  • *Contact author: kirk.bevan@mcgill.ca
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PRX Energy 4, 043007 – Published 10 November, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/3b46-sdm5

Abstract

Though rocking-chair batteries are ubiquitously associated with driving electronic devices, descriptions of their dynamical operation have generally been decoupled from the conventional drift-diffusion framework applied to solid-state electronic devices—the latter having enjoyed enormous success in the design of ubiquitous technologies including transistors, solid-state lasers, and light-emitting diodes. Building on long-standing Newman-type descriptions of battery operation, herein we discuss and present a theoretical framework for also conceptualizing the operation of alkali-ion rocking-chair batteries in terms of a competition between ion drift and diffusion via forces and concentration gradients, respectively. It is argued that the key link needed to facilitate a stronger physical bridge between coupled ionic and electronic degrees of freedom lies in the concept of a quasielectric field acting on ions between heterojunctions of ionic materials; a concept borrowed from the solid-state-device literature, where it has been extensively applied in heterojunction devices for decades, and extended in this work via the internal-energy contribution per ion particle. Within a model polymer redox battery system, for which a zero-vacuum reference energy for ions is also proposed, this approach is shown to capture standard battery concepts, including charging, discharging, capacity loss, internal resistances, nonequilibrium charge densities, and operating voltages. In this manner, the findings presented seek to provide a fundamental lasting bridge between electrochemical and electronic device descriptions.

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Popular Summary

The drift-diffusion framework is commonly used to explain charge-carrier transport in semiconductor devices. Herein, it is shown how the same conceptual framework can be extended towards understanding the physics of alkali-ion batteries, viewed as an electronic device with additional electrochemical considerations. The approach builds upon Kroemer’s concept of a quasielectric field to capture the impact of internal energy variations on the behavior of ions in such batteries. This work seeks to expand the intersection between device physics and physical chemistry in the design of alkali-ion batteries.

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PRX Energy 4, 043007– Published 10 November, 2025
  • Received 7 August 2025
  • Revised 6 October 2025
  • Accepted 16 October 2025
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