Lithium, the main component of batteries energizing electric vehicles (EVs) everywhere, is often criticized over their potentially detrimental effect on the cars, as well as the environment (defeating the purpose of EVs), but it might not be the preferred material for building them much longer.
As it happens, researchers at Princeton University in New Jersey have discovered a high-energy sodium-ion cathode that could outperform the traditional lithium-ion ones and could become a safer, more sustainable, and cost-effective alternative, according to the report by the organization’s Department of Chemistry on February 18.
Indeed, the University’s Dincă Group (a team of researchers led by Professor Mircea Dincă) has succeeded in their effort to create an “exciting alternative that relies on an organic, high-energy cathode material to make sodium-ion batteries, advancing the likelihood that this technology will find commercialization with safe, cheaper, more sustainable components.”
For their endeavor, they received financial support from Automobili Lamborghini, and now they have presented the cathode material – a layered organic solid called bis-tetraaminobenzoquinone (TAQ for short), which they said outperformed “traditional lithium-ion cathodes in both energy and power densities in a technology that is truly scalable.”
Lamborghini-funded sodium-ion discovery
Leading up to the sodium-ion discovery, the lab had already presented a lithium-ion battery with TAQ in 2024 and has since been adapting and optimizing the tech for sodium-ion batteries. According to Dincă Group Ph.D. and the first author of the paper covering the achievement, Tianyang Chen, it should facilitate better charging performance.
Furthermore, Prof. Dincă explained:
“Everyone understands the challenges that come with having limited resources for something as important as batteries, and lithium certainly qualifies as ‘limited’ in a number of ways. (…) Sodium is literally everywhere. For us, going after batteries that are made with really abundant resources like organic matter and seawater is among our greatest research dreams.”
Finally, he pointed out that energy density equates “with how much juice you can get in a battery,” so more energy density means your car can go further before having to recharge. The new material “has the largest energy density, certainly on a per kilogram basis, and competes with the best materials out there, even on a volumetric basis.”
All things considered, the scientists might be onto something, and replacing lithium with a cheaper, faster, more sustainable, and, most importantly, safer alternative for everyone included would truly revolutionize the production of EV batteries, and we look forward to seeing these findings put into practice in the future.
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