Eventually Stanford Ovshinsky, an American inventor, and his company, now known as ECD Ovonics, succeeded in creating metal-hydride alloys with a disordered structure that improved performance.

Conventional lithium-ion or nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries contain active material that is placed into a thin film.

For the nickel-metal hydride version of the battery, that material is a substance called nickel oxyhydroxide.