A major breakthrough in sodium-ion battery research could pave the way for greener energy storage and even help turn seawater into drinking water.
Scientists at the University of Surrey have discovered that leaving water inside a key material, rather than removing it, dramatically improves battery performance.
Sodium-ion batteries have long been viewed as a sustainable alternative to lithium-ion technology, which dominates the energy market but relies on scarce and environmentally harmful materials.
Sodium, by contrast, is far more abundant and cheaper to source.
Until now, sodium-ion batteries have struggled to match lithium-based ones in performance. The Surrey team’s findings, published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, show that an existing sodium-based material, sodium vanadium oxide, performs far better when its natural water content is retained.
The hydrated version, known as nanostructured sodium vanadate hydrate (NVOH), showed impressive results. It stored almost twice as much charge as typical sodium-ion materials, charged faster and remained stable for more than 400 cycles.
Dr Daniel Commandeur, Research Fellow at the University of Surrey’s School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and lead author of the study, said: “Our results were completely unexpected. Sodium vanadium oxide has been around for years and people usually heat-treat it to remove the water because it’s thought to cause problems. We decided to challenge that assumption and the outcome was far better than we anticipated.”
The researchers also tested the material in salt water, one of the harshest environments possible. It continued to perform well and even removed sodium and chloride ions, a process known as electrochemical desalination.
Dr Commandeur added: “Being able to use sodium vanadate hydrate in salt water is a really exciting discovery, as it shows sodium-ion batteries could do more than just store energy – they could also help remove salt from water.”
The study could help make sodium-ion batteries a practical, low-cost and sustainable alternative for renewable energy storage, electric vehicles and future desalination technologies.
Battery breakthrough could power greener energy and desalinate seawater appeared first on Energy Live News.