Sodium-ion (Na-ion) batteries

• Context (LM): The idea of making sodium-ion ( Na-ion) batteries at scale is gaining traction.
• CATL, a Chinese battery manufacturer, the world’s largest maker of Li-ion vehicle batteries, 2021 announced the world’s first sodium battery for electric vehicles.

Drawbacks of Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries

• Lithium is scarce.
• The best Li-ion batteries need cobalt and nickel, which are also scarce.
• Cobalt is problematic as much of it comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo with poor working conditions.
• Another type of Li-ion battery called polyanionic design uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP). LFP batteries don’t need nickel or cobalt. However, they can’t store as much energy per kilogram as batteries with layered-oxide cathodes.

Why Sodium-ion (Na-ion) batteries?

• Sodium is abundant, mainly found in ocean salt.
• Layered-oxide cathodes using sodium instead of lithium can function without cobalt or nickel.
• This discovery by chemists offers a potential alternative for battery manufacturing.
• It eliminates the need for scarce and sometimes problematic metals like cobalt and nickel.

Why Sodium was not preferred to lithium?

• A sodium battery will be bigger and heavier than a lithium one of the same capacity.
• Small size and low weight are crucial for phones and are desirable in cars.
• However, sodium batteries can be used for grid-scale storage, home storage, and heavy transport, such as lorries and ships.

Transition Metals Cobalt and nickel are so-called transition metals. Transition metals are superior conductors of heat as well as electricity. They don’t react quickly with water or oxygen, which explains why they resist corrosion. Alkali Metals Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium, and Caesium are alkali metals. They have a strong tendency to donate their valence electron in the last shell to form strong ionic bonds. Hence, they are highly reactive to water and oxygen. Since alkali metals react readily, they are usually found in conjunction with other metals in nature. For example, sodium chloride (table salt) and sodium carbonate (soda ash)