Common table salt may prove to be a key ingredient in making better materials for energy storage devices, according to new research. Using salt crystals as a template to grow thin sheets of conductive metal oxides make the materials turn out larger and more chemically pure - which make them better suited for gathering ions and storing energy, researchers said.

In an energy storage device - a battery or a capacitor, for example - energy is contained in the chemical transfer of ions from an electrolyte solution to thin layers of conductive materials. Researchers have used a variety of chemicals, compounds, polymers and objects as growth templates for nanomaterials. But this discovery shows the importance of matching a template to the structure of the material being grown.