[xxs]

Fuel(gasoline, carbohydrates, fats, etc. but not rocket one) does use oxygen from the atmosphere.Batteries are self contained (like rocket fuel).

So the density of chemical reactions is by definition higher.

Side note: energy density should apply to volume, not weight, but we'll - it is too common now.

[aswanson]

What makes one chemical more able to store a greater energy per unit mass than another? Wouldn't the theoretical limit be a volume of pure electrons compressed in the densest unit volume possible? Say, stored in a magnetic field?

[xxs]

Compressing neon gas won't do much, aside storing energy as compressed fluid.

My point was the traditional fuels (incl. the edible ones) use more material/weight than their own. So it is very likely they'll be more efficient. The batteries require a reversible action by just applying current - this is quite the climb compared to most chemical reactions.

We have not done much since the li-ion inception, using FePO4 instead of cobalt is more sensible from an economic point of view but the energy density is even lower.