Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University admit that it’s a temporary solution, finding that the addition of water dissolves the lithium peroxide film that develops on the lithium-air battery anode. By eliminating the sudden-death problem, researchers were forced to recalculate lithium-air’s energy storage capacity. With the lithium peroxide barrier removed, the new lithium-air formulation is up to 500% more energy dense than previously. Of course, there’s still the problem of the water itself adding weight and dissipating, so more development is needed to make lithium-air batteries comparable or better than lithium-ion.