New research indicates that sodium-ion EV batteries could charge up in seconds, not minutes. That not only races past the best lithium-ion technology on the market today, it also beats gas. Contact online >>
New research indicates that sodium-ion EV batteries could charge up in seconds, not minutes. That not only races past the best lithium-ion technology on the market today, it also beats gas...
A new type of hybrid sodium-ion battery that offers both high capacity and rapid-charging capabilities could power mobile devices, electric vehicles and space tech.
Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have identified a high-energy, high-power hybrid sodium-ion battery capable of charging in just a few seconds.
A research team led by Professor Jeung Ku Kang from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering has developed a high-energy, high-power hybrid sodium-ion battery capable of rapid charging.
Researchers have developed a new coin-type sodium-based battery that can charge rapidly “in seconds” and could potentially power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles (EVs) in the future.
By combining anode materials used in conventional batteries with cathodes from supercapacitors — batteries that can store and deliver energy at very high rates –– the scientists created a new type of sodium-ion battery that offers both high capacity and rapid-charging capabilities.
They were looking for a way to overcome the current limitations of sodium-ion energy storage — touted as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries — and described their findings in a study published March 29 in the journal Energy Storage Materials.
The new sodium-ion hybrid fuel cells could serve as a "viable next-generation alternative to lithium-ion batteries," the researchers said in a joint statement, with applications ranging from laptops and mobile devices to electric vehicles and aerospace technologies.
Related: Tired of your laptop battery degrading? New ''pulse current'' charging process could double its lifespan.
Sodium is significantly more abundant than lithium –– up to 1,000 times more, the researchers said –– making sodium-ion batteries potentially cheaper and more sustainable to produce than the lithium-ion batteries currently used to power most EVs and consumer electronics.
However, existing sodium-ion batteries offer lower power output and storage capacity than lithium-ion batteries and take longer to charge, thus limiting their potential applications. In the new study, the researchers sought a way to tackle the shortcomings of the technology.
The research represents "a breakthrough in overcoming the current limitations of energy storage systems," Jeung Ku Kang, lead author of the study and a professor of materials science and engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), said in the statement.
They achieved their prototype by developing a new type of anode from ultrafine iron sulfide particles embedded in sulfur-doped carbon and graphene. This improved conductivity and energy storage. For the cathode, they used a "zeolitic imidazolate framework" (ZIF) — a type of metal-organic framework that combines metal ions with organic molecules to create a porous, crystalline structure. This improved how quickly the battery could charge and discharge.
The team said the full cell, once assembled, achieved an energy storage capacity of 247 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg) and could deliver power at a rate of up to 34,748 watts per kilogram (W/kg). This means it could hold more energy for its weight than existing hybrid sodium-ion batteries and could charge and discharge power much more quickly, exceeding the performance of existing technology by more than 100 times.
The battery also maintained efficiency and performance over 5,000 charge and discharge cycles in tests, the researchers said, suggesting it could be used repeatedly over a long period without wearing out. This is crucial for applications where batteries need to last a long time without degrading, such as in grid energy storage systems and EVs. By comparison, many lithium-ion batteries used in commercial laptops, for example, can sustain up to 500 charge cycles before beginning to degrade.
Owen Hughes is a freelance writer and editor specializing in data and digital technologies. Previously a senior editor at ZDNET, Owen has been writing about tech for more than a decade, during which time he has covered everything from AI, cybersecurity and supercomputers to programming languages and public sector IT. Owen is particularly interested in the intersection of technology, life and work – in his previous roles at ZDNET and TechRepublic, he wrote extensively about business leadership, digital transformation and the evolving dynamics of remote work.
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Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have identified a high-energy, high-power hybrid sodium-ion battery capable of charging in just a few seconds. The system integrates anode materials typically used in batteries with cathodes suitable for supercapacitors.
Synthetic procedures of high-capacity/high-rate anode and cathode materials for sodium-ion hybrid energy storage and proposed energy storage mechanisms
Sodium-ion energy storage systems have garnered a lot of attention due to their superior safety, raw material costs, and environmental credentials compared to ubiquitous lithium-ion batteries. However, the technology is likely to challenge the incumbent only once costs are reduced by improving technical performance, establishing supply chains, and achieving economies of scale.
There are two types of sodium-ion energy storage systems: sodium-ion batteries and sodium-ion capacitors. The first are hindered by their poor rechargeability due to their low power density, while providing relatively high energy density. The latter, on the other hand, display high power density, but extremely low energy density. Hence, combining capacitor-type cathodes and battery-type anodes in sodium-ion hybrid energy storage (SIHES) cells has been an active area of research, bringing together the best of both worlds.
Now, KAIST researchers have reported a strategy to realize ultra-high-energy density and fast-rechargeable SIHES systems. They have utilized two distinct metal-organic frameworks for the optimized synthesis of hybrid batteries.
Their approach led to the development of an anode material with improved kinetics through the inclusion of fine active materials in porous carbon derived from metal-organic frameworks. Additionally, a high-capacity cathode material was synthesized, and the combination of the cathode and anode materials allowed for the development of a SIHES system, optimizing the balance and minimizing the disparities in energy storage rates between the electrodes.
The researchers have reported that the newly developed hybrid surpasses the energy density of commercial lithium-ion batteries and exhibits the characteristics of supercapacitors'' power density.
Namely, the SIHES demonstrated an energy density of 247 Wh/kg and a fast-rechargeable power density of 34,748 W/kg, exceeding battery-type reactions by more than 100 folds. It also demonstrated cycle stability with around 100 % Coulombic efficiency over 5,000 charge-discharge cycles.
The KAIST researchers anticipate broad applications for their new SIHES technology, ranging from electric vehicles to smart electronic devices and aerospace technologies.
They discussed their findings in “Low-crystallinity conductive multivalence iron sulfide-embedded S-doped anode and high-surface-area O-doped cathode of 3D porous N-rich graphitic carbon frameworks for high-performance sodium-ion hybrid energy storages,” which was recently published in Energy Storage Materials.
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