The sodium battery taking off... Any expert opinions, please ?

[Externet]

Greetings.  If deserves moving to science news, well, go ahead.

Seems rosy.  Perhaps too rosy.  Any opinions for the inconvenient sides if any; of hurdles against ?   Aimed mostly to large scale storage (which is not wrong at all) , at least for now.  I understand the manufacturing/production started already. 🤨

A link, just a link ---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHNELRnJ_4Y     There should be others, better or worse.

 

[exchemist]

38 minutes ago, Externet said:

Greetings.  If deserves moving to science news, well, go ahead.

Seems rosy.  Perhaps too rosy.  Any opinions for the inconvenient sides if any; of hurdles against ?   Aimed mostly to large scale storage (which is not wrong at all) , at least for now.  I understand the manufacturing/production started already. 🤨

A link, just a link ---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHNELRnJ_4Y     There should be others, better or worse.

 

I can't claim expertise in this area but it is certainly interesting. Thanks for posting.

The Li ion battery exploits the very small size of the Li+ ion, which is isoelectronic with helium and will be even smaller, due to the higher nuclear charge. This can fit into interstitial sites in cobalt oxide reversibly, i.e. the ions can flow in and out without disrupting the crystal structure, due to their small size.

I would assume one of the challenges of trying to do the same thing with the far larger Na+ ion is to find crystal structures sufficiently open to allow the same thing to happen with a larger cation. This appears to be what lies behind the choice of Prussian White. This is is a mixed-cation ionic compound with ferrocyanide (Fe(CN)6)4- anions, Fe2+ cations plus a second metal cation to make it electrically neutral - which can be Na. It has large interstitial sites due to the large size of the ferrocyanide anion.

The other electrode, which is carbon, also has to be able to accept the cations reversibly into its structure - easy for the tiny Li+ ion, but more of a challenge for Na+. From what I read, there is however one particular, amorphous type of carbon that can do this.

So that's what I have been able to pick up so far on this topic. Comments, additions or corrections welcome.

I would guess there will be not insignificant commercial manufacturing challenges,  but from an environmental and geopolitical point of view, getting away from dependence on lithium and cobalt would seem to be a very good idea indeed. 

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by exchemist