Sodium Batteries Take a Leap Forward with New Stabilization Technique

A new technique stabilizes a metastable form of sodium solid electrolyte, enabling all-solid-state sodium batteries to maintain performance even at subzero temperatures.

All-solid-state batteries represent a safe and powerful option for powering electric vehicles, electronics, and storing energy from the power grid. However, their production currently relies heavily on lithium, a metal that is costly, difficult to source, and environmentally damaging to mine.

Sodium offers a cheaper, more abundant, and less harmful alternative, but sodium-based all-solid-state batteries have historically struggled to operate efficiently at room temperature.

“It’s not a matter of sodium versus lithium. We need both. When we think about tomorrow’s energy storage solutions, we should imagine the same gigafactory can produce products based on both lithium and sodium chemistries,” said Y. Shirley Meng, Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering at the uchicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME). “This new research gets us closer to that ultimate goal while advancing basic science along the way.”

Meng’s lab recently published findings in Joule that address this challenge. The study demonstrates a notable step forward by showing that sodium-based batteries with thick cathodes can maintain strong performance at room temperature and even below freezing.

The research helps put sodium on a more equal playing field with lithium for electrochemical performance, said first author Sam Oh of the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering in Singapore, a visiting scholar at Meng’s Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion during the research.