Researchers Unveil a Sodium-Ion Battery That Rivals Commercial Lithium-Ion Models

[GURPS]

There is an alternative - sodium-ion batteries have the potential to be cheaper and more easily produced, if we can get past the problem of getting these batteries to work as well as the lithium-ion technology we're predominantly using. Now, we may have just gotten a huge step closer to this goal.

Researchers have produced one of the best sets of results so far for a sodium-ion battery, one that holds as much energy as lithium-ion, and performs as well as some commercial lithium-ion batteries. It's a "major development" in sodium-ion (Na-ion) battery research, the team says.

One area where Na-ion batteries might be particularly useful is in large-scale energy storage. As the world makes the transition to renewable energy, that storage is going to be ever more important – and we're going to need battery technology that's cheap to produce and straightforward to scale up.

'The key challenge is for the battery to have both high energy density and a good cycle life," says materials engineer Junhua Song, from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Right now, lithium-ion batteries have the advantage over sodium-ion: they last longer, and they hold more energy. One of the reasons is that a lot of potential materials used for the cathode – the part of the battery that receives the flowing electrons – end up with a damaging build-up of inactive sodium crystals, eventually killing the energy transfer.

Researchers Unveil a Sodium-Ion Battery That Rivals Commercial Lithium-Ion Models

So much of our everyday tech runs on batteries, the importance of lithium-ion rechargeables cannot be overstated.

www.sciencealert.com

 

[Clem72]

They may be easier to produce than smaller cell lithiums, but like every other alternative chemistry in the last 10 years they won't last as long or work under as varied a workload.

And let's not forget battery-day from Tesla yesterday. Their new batteries, which they already have a pilot production line producing and are already powering their fastest "Plaid" model S test cars are more energy dense, made of cheaper materials, have no cobalt, and produce MUCH less heat (to the point that they have zero cooling channels in the new battery packs and plan to charge them more than twice as fast as their current super-chargers).

 

[glhs837]

They may be easier to produce than smaller cell lithiums, but like every other alternative chemistry in the last 10 years they won't last as long or work under as varied a workload.

And let's not forget battery-day from Tesla yesterday. Their new batteries, which they already have a pilot production line producing and are already powering their fastest "Plaid" model S test cars are more energy dense, made of cheaper materials, have no cobalt, and produce MUCH less heat (to the point that they have zero cooling channels in the new battery packs and plan to charge them more than twice as fast as their current super-chargers).

The funny thing is I see the industry experts say "Well, everyone else is working on this stuff in the lab, they didnt show anything new". Ignoring the footage of the pilot plant churning out cells like soda bottles. This postmortem is a great example of why the rest of the industry is so far behind. Listen to the autoline guy and the "battery expert and industrialist" just blow off things that are pretty obvious advances.

1. "CATL has a lab" - Well, duh, Tesla has a small factory making preliminary production runs.
2. "Everyone has structural battery packs". - Yes, their pack cases are structural. But the beef that makes them structural reduces the amount of space you can fill with batteries and cooling systems. But the new Tesla pack is a monolithic block where the cells themselves provide the beef, increasing the amount of space you can fill with batteries.
3. "Everyone knows how to build factories" - Well, judging by the fact that nobody believed Giga Shanghai would produce its first cars in under a year and a half, and it was producing them in about 9 months with full rate in less than a yeaar, and both Berlin and Austim look to be online as fast or faster, then no, nobody is producing factories that way.

 

[Clem72]

I was on the fence about the new VW ID.4, been wanting an all electric vehicle for a while. Now I think I will have to wait a year or three to see what happens with the new battery packs.

 

[glhs837]

I was on the fence about the new VW ID.4, been wanting an all electric vehicle for a while. Now I think I will have to wait a year or three to see what happens with the new battery packs.

You might not see the new cells in the Model 3 and Y for a while, what you will see is that the new production methods slated first for Belin and then Fremont, which should save weight, which will increase the already hefty range of over 300 miles, but should save production cost, allowing price drops. Those new cells will be put first into the Model X and S, to refresh them as they are low production and dont need as many cells.

Then they will be put into the Cybertruck an Semi, as both of those require massive ranges. Then they will hit the Model 3 and Model Y. Thats what his tweet about not seeing these in serious production for a couple of years meant, they plan to scale production as they add models that need these benefits first. 3 and Y already lead the class in efficiency and will continue to do so even without the new cells.

The ID4s production is a bit at risk with the South Korean battery company being in legal trouble over IP theft from LG.

 

[Gilligan]

The ID4s production is a bit at risk with the South Korean battery company being in legal trouble over IP theft from LG.

Working with tech companies and shipyards in South Korea since the early 90's, I cannot think of a single one that has not gotten themselves in deep trouble at tome point, over IP theft and/or a wide array of bribery, kickbacks and fraud.