Electrode Materials for Rechargeable Sodium‐Ion Batteries: Potential Alternatives to Current Lithium‐Ion Batteries

Abstract

Lithium (Li)‐ion batteries (LIB) have governed the current worldwide rechargeable battery market due to their outstanding energy and power capability. In particular, the LIB's role in enabling electric vehicles (EVs) has been highlighted to replace the current oil‐driven vehicles in order to reduce the usage of oil resources and generation of CO2 gases. Unlike Li, sodium is one of the more abundant elements on Earth and exhibits similar chemical properties to Li, indicating that Na chemistry could be applied to a similar battery system. In the 1970s‐80s, both Na‐ion and Li‐ion electrodes were investigated, but the higher energy density of Li‐ion cells made them more applicable to small, portable electronic devices, and research efforts for rechargeable batteries have been mainly concentrated on LIB since then. Recently, research interest in Na‐ion batteries (NIB) has been resurrected, driven by new applications with requirements different from those in portable electronics, and to address the concern on Li abundance. In this article, both negative and positive electrode materials in NIB are briefly reviewed. While the voltage is generally lower and the volume change upon Na removal or insertion is larger for Na‐intercalation electrodes, compared to their Li equivalents, the power capability can vary depending on the crystal structures. It is concluded that cost‐effective NIB can partially replace LIB, but requires further investigation and improvement.

Aromatic porous-honeycomb electrodes for a sodium-organic energy storage device

“…However, abundance of commercially viable lithium source is low, which may be detrimental to future costs and energy supply stability. In spite of this, there is a huge demand for lithium batteries to be used in a variety of devices, for example, portable electronic devices and electronic vehicles [1][2][3][4][5][6] .…”

“…There is an urgent need for alternative energy storage devices with a performance comparable to, or better than rechargeable lithium batteries. One possible approach is to use sodium as an alternative charge carrier [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] to lithium, as the cost of sodium carbonate (Na 2 CO 3 ), for example, is only 3% of Li 2 CO 3 (ref. 5).…”

NaFe3(HPO3)2((H,F)PO2OH)6: A Potential Cathode Material and a Novel Ferrimagnet

“…Lithium-ion batteries have so far been preferred to their sodium-ion counterparts for their higher energy density and operating voltages, leading to their domination of the portable electronics market and making them the best candidate for electric vehicles 1 , but concerns about lithium supply and its rising cost have encouraged the scientific community to turn its attention to the more sustainable sodium-ion batteries. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] The resurgence of interest in sodium-ion batteries has been driven by the greater and more uniform Earth abundance of sodium, compared with lithium, and hence potentially lower cost. Sodium-ion batteries could be major players in next-generation lowcarbon energy technologies and in the promotion of sustainable global economic growth.…”

Flexible Electrodes for Sodium‐Ion Batteries: Recent Progress and Perspectives

“…It is even predicted that the world will run out of lithium supplies in the foreseeable future. [6][7][8] It is well known that sodium resources are more abundant (abundance: 23.6 × 10 3 mg kg −1 vs 20 mg kg −1 ) and vast (for example, the United States alone possesses 23 billion tons of soda ash which is a sodium-containing precursor) than lithium analog. Additionally, the trona (about $135-165 per ton), which could be used to produce sodium carbonate, has much lower cost than lithium carbonate (about $5000 per ton in 2010).…”