A few days ago, researchers from Washington State University (WSU) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) developed a sodium ion battery, the energy storage capability of this kind of battery is equivalent to the chemical performance of some commercial lithium ion batteries, which makes it possible to develop a possible and feasible battery technology by using rich and cheap materials.
The team reported one of the best results of sodium ion batteries so far. It can provide a capacity similar to some lithium ion batteries, and can still maintain more than 80% of the electricity after 1000 cycles of charging. The study, led by Professor Lin Yuehe from the School of Mechanical and material engineering of Washington State University and Li Xiaolin, a senior researcher at PNNL, was published in the Journal of ACS Energy communications.
"This is a major development of sodium ion batteries," said Dr. Imre guick, director of energy storage in the electricity office of the Department of Energy, who supported PNNL's work. "In many applications, people are very interested in the potential of replacing lithium ion batteries with sodium ions."
Lithium ion batteries are everywhere and widely used in mobile phones, laptops and electric vehicles. But they are made of rare and expensive materials such as cobalt and lithium. As the demand for electric vehicles and electricity storage increases, these materials will become more difficult to obtain and may be more expensive. Lithium batteries also have problems in meeting the growing demand for energy storage in the power grid.
On the other hand, sodium ion batteries, made of cheap, rich and sustainable sodium from the Earth's oceans or crust, can be a good candidate for large-scale energy storage. Unfortunately, they store less energy than lithium batteries. Researchers said the key challenge is that batteries must have a high energy density and a good cycle life.
The research team designed and manufactured a layered metal oxide cathode and a liquid electrolyte containing additional sodium ions, which can produce good interaction with the cathode, sodium ions can flow smoothly and continuously inside, while the formation of inactive surface crystals is inhibited, and finally Power generation is not hindered.
Researchers are now working to better understand the important interaction between electrolyte and cathode so that they can use different materials to improve battery design. At the same time, the team also wants to design a cobalt-free battery.
Researchers said this work paved the way for actual sodium ion batteries and provided ideas on how to develop cobalt-free or low cobalt cathode materials in sodium ion batteries and other types of battery chemistry in the future. Sodium ion batteries may soon really compete with lithium ion batteries.
