Sodium Batteries
Lithium-ion batteries are used in most everyday devices. Producing such devices requires rare metals like cobalt and lithium, which is also an uncommon element and significantly impacts production costs. According to scientists, lithium can be replaced by sodium, which would greatly reduce production costs. In addition, sodium batteries would charge much faster, and draining the battery to zero would not have a detrimental effect. However, previous work on this has been unsuccessful because sodium quickly forms thin metallic structures on the electrode, known as dendrites, which shorten the battery's lifespan.
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have solved this problem by using a computer model to create a new material that prevents dendrite formation and thus electrode damage.
This material was created by depositing a thin layer of sodium onto antimony telluride and folding it several times, thus creating alternating layers. Thanks to this, the sodium is distributed evenly, and dendrites form more slowly and less frequently. This allows for the creation of a sodium battery that rivals a lithium battery in terms of the number of charge and discharge cycles, and will also have a similar energy density. Sodium batteries could become the future of the industry