Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 09/30/2025 6:12:22 AM PDT by Red Badger
A new technique stabilizes a metastable form of sodium solid electrolyte, enabling all-solid-state sodium batteries to maintain performance even at subzero temperatures.
All-solid-state batteries are considered a safe and powerful option for running electric vehicles, electronics, and even storing energy from the power grid. However, producing them relies heavily on lithium, a metal that is costly, difficult to source, and damaging to the environment when mined.
Sodium offers a cheaper, more abundant, and less harmful alternative, but sodium-based all-solid-state batteries have struggled to operate efficiently at room temperature.
“It’s not a matter of sodium versus lithium. We need both. When we think about tomorrow’s energy storage solutions, we should imagine the same gigafactory can produce products based on both lithium and sodium chemistries,” said Y. Shirley Meng, Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering at the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME). “This new research gets us closer to that ultimate goal while advancing basic science along the way.”
Meng’s lab recently published findings in Joule that address this challenge. The study demonstrates a significant step forward by showing that sodium-based batteries with thick cathodes can maintain strong performance at room temperature and even below freezing.
The research helps put sodium on a more equal playing field with lithium for electrochemical performance, said first author Sam Oh of the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering in Singapore, a visiting scholar at Meng’s Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion during the research.
How they accomplished that goal represents an advance in pure science.
“The breakthrough that we have is that we are actually stabilizing a metastable structure that has not been reported,” Oh said. “This metastable structure of sodium hydridoborate has a very high ionic conductivity, at least one order of magnitude higher than the one reported in the literature, and three to four orders of magnitude higher than the precursor itself.”
Established technique, new field
The team heated a metastable form of sodium hydridoborate up to the point it started to crystallize, then rapidly cooled it to stabilize the crystal structure kinetically. It’s a well-established technique, but one that has not previously been applied to solid electrolytes, Oh said.
That familiarity could, down the road, help turn this lab innovation into a real-world product.
“Since this technique is established, we are better able to scale up in the future,” Oh said. “If you are proposing something new or if there’s a need to change or establish processes, then industry will be more reluctant to accept it.”
Pairing that metastable phase with a O3-type cathode that has been coated with a chloride-based solid electrolyte can create thick, high-areal-loading cathodes that puts this new design beyond previous sodium batteries. Unlike design strategies with a thin cathode, this thick cathode would pack less of the inactive materials and more cathode “meat.”
“The thicker the cathode is, the theoretical energy density of the battery – the amount of energy being held within a specific area – improves,” Oh said.
The current research advances sodium as a viable alternative for batteries, a vital step to combat the rarity and environmental damage of lithium. It’s one of many steps ahead.
“It’s still a long journey, but what we have done with this research will help open up this opportunity,” Oh said.
Reference:
“Metastable sodium closo-hydridoborates for all-solid-state batteries with thick cathodes”
by Jin An Sam Oh, Zihan Yu, Chen-Jui Huang, Phillip Ridley, Alex Liu, Tianren Zhang, Bing Joe Hwang, Kent J. Griffith, Shyue Ping Ong and Ying Shirley Meng, 16 September 2025, Joule.
DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2025.102130
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
but it still has to take FOREVER to charge and there are no places to charge
It will be on the shelf next to Mr. Fusion in 10 years, right?
Sodium? Anybody remember the junior high chemistry demonstration when the teacher threw sodium into a container of water?
Perhaps that’s what they mean by “metastable?”
If you could buy it here BYD would sell you a 5 passenger sedan that goes 80 miles all electric then switches to a small generator to go another 1200+ miles at 100 mpg. The price in China is $15,000. This is in a full sized sedan.
Given than less than 7% of Americans drive more than 30 miles per day the vast majority of people would never need to fill up but for the once or twice a year they take a trip over 80 miles. America is a urban nation 75% of the population lives in urban census area’s.
A 120V plug would put 30 miles of range back in 5 hours time at 12 amp draw so safely under the 80% rating of a 15 amp plug. Every garage in America by code has at least two 120v 15amp plugs. It is irrelevant as the battery could be charged on the move with the onboard generator which when it’s running is only run at its peak efficiency point by design, it’s only job is to charge the pack and then shut off. The 15 gallon tank can be filled in under 3 minutes with generator fuel. You get all the benefits of EV acceleration and regenerative braking plus virtually unlimited range at peak efficiency for any ICE engine in production the BYD generator engine is 43% tank to electrons that’s a world best the typical gasoline engine driving a mechanical transmission is under 20% tank to wheels closer to 12% Google scholar has a dozen sources for BSFC data and tank to wheel exergy.
https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10318
Sodium ion batteries use sodium ions not sodium metal. Is table salt flammable? It’s 50% sodium and 50% chlorine where Cl is a toxic gas that eats your lungs up it was used during WWI as a gas weapon. However in ion form neither element is harmful.
Solid state cells have no flammable liquid electrolytes which is the source of lithium ion batteries flammability.
The other factor is that the majority of the people on the planet do not own an automobile. Anyone who has ever visited Europe comes to this realization quickly.
Most Europeans commute on some type of scooter.
Even European brand motorcycles like BMW & Ducati are fairly rare to see.
Think of how a person riding a scooter to and from work in Europe or Asia would be effected.
Gasoline and diesel are already expensive there.
However, so is electricity. So, it is not like they are buying electricity for $.07/KHW like some places here in the USA. Which is why most Europeans do not have clothes dryers.
We tend to think of these things from an American perspective only. Where some people drive 100 miles round trip to work and back. The person sitting behind me in my office commutes 600 miles per week.
I drive just under 50/week.
I could see many people having two vehicles in the USA in the future. One for longer distances. One for commuting.
Or, we will all be driving some sort of plug in hybrid.
Which will have a small battery for the daily commute and a turbo charged four cylinder engine to go on longer trips.
Big yawn. Energy density is still a problem. Charging time is still a problem. Grid capacity is still a problem. Battery complexity is still a problem. Thermal runaway is still a problem. Cost is still a problem. Battery deterioration with time and use is still a problem. Batteries have uses, but transportation is not valid one. Nor is substitution for actual generation on the grid a valid use.
No way it meets federal EPA standards or Required safety standards, or any of the other stuff required by law.
And we wonder why a base model sedan is averaging 30k these days.
Phone and laptop batteries lose 20-40 percent of their storage capacity over 2-3 years. However they are in use 5 hours or so a day. A car is likely only in use 1 hour a day. So car batteries last long enough that other parts of the car fail around the same time as the battery. But a commercial vehicle is in use 8 hours a day, so a battery will fail after 2-3 years. Who wants to buy a Mack truck for 300k that will always fail after 2 years. Batteries cannot replace diesel engines which routinely get 20,000 hours of use without failing.
https://atldiesel.com/blogs/news/what-is-the-common-lifespan-of-a-diesel-engine
“All-solid-state batteries are considered a safe and powerful option for running electric vehicles”
Until they burst and produce and uncontrollable chemical reaction that can take down cargo ships and parking garages, or fry occupants of an elevator.
“Pritzeker college” and yet another Chinese name leading breakthroughs in science at a liberal college.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.