A new sodium battery has been created that can be charged in seconds

Researchers at the Korea Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a high-power sodium-ion hybrid battery that can be charged in seconds.

Sodium is considered to be almost 1000 times more abundant than lithium. Therefore, sodium-ion electrochemical energy storage devices are more attractive than traditional lithium-ion electrochemical energy storage devices.

Led by Professor Jung Ku Kang of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the research team integrated anode materials commonly used in batteries with cathodes suitable for supercapacitors.

The combination has helped the battery achieve high storage capacity and fast charging and discharging speeds. The research shows that the battery could be a viable alternative to next-generation lithium-ion batteries.

Incorporating the newly developed anode and cathode, the assembled full cell forms a high-performance hybrid sodium-ion energy storage device. It is superior in terms of energy density to lithium-ion batteries available on the market.

According to the researchers, the device exhibits the energy density characteristics of supercapacitors.

“The development of a high-energy, high-power-density hybrid battery requires improving the slow energy storage rate of battery-type anodes, as well as increasing the relatively low capacity of supercapacitor-type cathode materials.”

said the team’s statement

The battery can meet the growing demand for low-cost electrochemical energy storage devices with high energy density for long operation on a single charge and fast charge power density to meet a wide range of applications ranging from mobile electronic devices to electric vehicles to large-scale network systems.

Currently available sodium-ion energy storage systems have poor rechargeability. This is because they have a low power density while providing a relatively high energy density. Two types of sodium energy storage systems are currently available – sodium-ion batteries (SIB) and sodium ion capacitors (SIC). Therefore, researchers focused on sodium-ion hybrid energy storage cells (SIHES).

SIHES can use the different potential windows of capacitor-type cathodes and battery-type anodes. It attracts a lot of attention because this storage system can in principle enable both high energy density and fast charging power density.

According to the researchers, SIHES can achieve an energy density of 247 Wh/kg and a power density of 34,748 W/kg. Professor Kang said the research represents a breakthrough in overcoming the current limitations of energy storage systems. It expects wider applications in various electronic devices, including electric vehicles.

Co-authored by KAIST PhD students Jong Hui Choi and Dong Won Kim, the research is published in the journal Energy Storage Materials.