Non lithium based technologies: walking on the sodium side

Speaker: Dr Rosa Palacin (CSIC, Inst Ciencia Mat Barcelona, Spain)

The development of room temperature sodium based batteries is currently a challenge in fundamental materials research. While it holds promise for accelerated development thanks to the knowledge gained in the “chemically similar” Li-ion ubiquitous technology, the Na-ion technology is still in its infancy. Proof of concept was given long ago but it is only recently that the topic has recaptured the attention of the scientific community concomitant to large scale development of the Li-ion technology and concerns about lithium cost and availability. Since Na-ion batteries do not involve the use of sodium metal anodes, there would be no a priori reason to think that they cannot attain the same performances than Li-ion if suitable positive and negative electrode materials are developed.

The talk will review recent research aiming at the development of negative electrode materials discussing analogies and differences between lithium and sodium systems. Results will also be presented dealing with systematic studies on electrolytes and formulation and assembly/performance of laboratory full Na-ion cells.