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.