Scientists at Princeton University have developed a high-energy sodium-ion cathode that could outperform lithium-ion counterparts, potentially offering a more cost-effective and sustainable alternative for battery technology.
Sodium-ion batteries are considered a promising option for electric vehicles as sodium is more abundant and less expensive than lithium. Additionally, the supply chain for sodium is not concentrated in Asia, reducing geopolitical risks.
The research, funded by Volkswagen’s Italian sports car brand Lamborghini, has been led by Professor Mircea Dincă. The team has developed an organic, high-energy cathode material designed to enhance the commercial viability of sodium-ion batteries.
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“Our work presents an exciting alternative that relies on an organic, high-energy cathode material to make sodium-ion batteries, advancing the likelihood that this technology will find commercialization with safe, cheaper, more sustainable components,” Dincă said.
The cathode material, a layered organic solid called bis-tetraaminobenzoquinone (TAQ), is reported to exceed the energy and power densities of traditional lithium-ion cathodes. This discovery follows earlier work from Dincă’s laboratory, which last year introduced a lithium-ion battery using TAQ. The team has since been optimizing the material for sodium-ion applications.
“The binder we chose, carbon nanotubes, facilitates the mixing of TAQ crystallites and carbon black particles, leading to a homogeneous electrode,” said Tianyang Chen, a Ph.D. researcher and first author of the study. “The carbon nanotubes closely wrap around TAQ crystallites and interconnect them. Both of these factors promote electron transport within the electrode bulk, enabling an almost 100% active material utilization, which leads to almost theoretical maximum capacity.”
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Dincă emphasized the importance of developing battery materials using widely available resources. “Everyone understands the challenges that come with having limited resources for something as important as batteries, and lithium certainly qualifies as ‘limited’ in a number of ways,” he said. “Sodium is literally everywhere. For us, going after batteries that are made with really abundant resources like the organic matter and seawater is among our greatest research dreams.”
Addressing energy density, Dincă added, “Energy density is something on a lot of people’s minds because you can equate it with how much juice you get in a battery. The more energy density you have, the farther your car goes before you have to recharge it. We’ve answered quite emphatically that the new material we developed has the largest energy density, certainly on a per kilogram basis, and competes with the best materials out there even on a volumetric basis.”
The findings have been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) under the Lamborghini-funded paper titled High-Energy, High-Power Sodium-Ion Batteries from a Layered Organic Cathode.