What is a sodium-ion battery?

A sodium-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery comparable to the ubiquitous lithium-ion battery, but it uses sodium ions (Na+) as the charge carriers rather than lithium ions (Li+). The working principles behind and cell construction of a sodium-ion battery is virtually identical to those of lithium-ion batteries, but sodium compounds are used instead of lithium compounds.

Sodium-ion batteries are currently emerging as a potential alternative to current lithium-ion battery technology due to their lower cost, higher availability, and reduced impact on the environment. Since sodium-ion batteries use cheap and abundant materials—sodium and aluminum rather than lithium and copper—they could be transformative in some applications.

Lithium-ion batteries vs Sodium-ion batteries

Do you think sodium-ion batteries will replace lithium-ion batteries in energy storage and E-bike applications?Let Bright Power share you some sodium ion batteries advantage and disvantages with Lithium-ion batteries.
1.Cost:
Sodium-ion batteries use relatively inexpensive materials such as sodium compounds, and there are 423 times more sodium ions in the world than lithium ions, so sodium-ion batteries will cost less.
2.Performance:
Sodium-ion batteries in energy density, power density, and other indicators are worse than lithium-ion batteries, according to CATL released sodium ion battery, the capacity density reached 160Wh/Kg, and multiplier performance is good, that is, at room temperature 15 minutes charging capacity up to 80%, low-temperature resistance is also better, -20 ℃ environment, there is still more than 90% of the discharge retention rate. The system integration efficiency is 80% and the thermal stability is excellent, The energy density of ternary lithium battery cells can already reach about 300Wh/kg; the energy density of lithium iron phosphate cells is slightly lower, but it is also about 220Wh/kg. The current energy density is lower than the energy density of lithium iron phosphate batteries, but the low temperature and fast charging performance is stronger. CATL Next generation sodium ion energy density will exceed 200Wh/kg.
3.Safety:
Sodium-ion batteries are safer. The higher the current density of lithium-ion batteries the faster the dendritic lithium grows, piercing the internal structure of the battery and causing short-circuit spontaneous combustion. Whereas sodium ion has a low probability of producing dendrites and a low probability of spontaneous combustion.
4.Cycle life:
At present, the cycle life of lithium iron phosphate batteries has reached more than 6,000 times, and the cycle life of sodium-ion batteries announced by CATL can only reach 3,000~4000 times. And According to GREAT POWER, the company has developed a non-negative sodium vanadium phosphate system with an energy density of more than 160wh/kg, while on the product side, it has launched a mass production product with a cycle life of more than 6,000 cycles.
5.To sum up:
sodium-ion batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries have their own characteristics, in the future for quite a long time, the two battery chemistry systems complement each other, each to meet the application needs of different market segments in cycle life, safety, and lithium iron phosphate equivalent, in multiplier performance, high and low-temperature performance are not weaker than various types of lithium-ion batteries, so it is more suitable for the energy density requirements are not high, but more sensitive to the cost, or the cycle life requirements are relatively The application scenarios with high cycle life requirements, such as light electric vehicles, low and medium range new energy vehicles (below 300 km range), backup power, base station power, power storage, construction machinery, industrial vehicles, etc. In terms of industry chain improvement, product range enrichment, performance maturity, standards development, and market acceptance, sodium-ion batteries still have a long way to go and will take 5-10 years to form a large industry, which will be greatly accelerated by the addition of CATL.

Will sodium-ion batteries replace lithium-ion batteries?

Will sodium-ion batteries replace lithium-ion batteries? Sodium is the second lightest metal element on earth after lithium. From the periodic table of elements, sodium and lithium belong to the same group of elements, and their chemical properties are similar, so theoretically sodium can also be used as lithium Battery. Of course, the atomic radius of sodium is much larger than that of lithium, because sodium atoms have 8 more electrons than lithium atoms, so they naturally grow fat. Once you gain weight, there will be many troubles, such as it cannot be embedded in graphite like lithium, and it is much heavier than lithium, so that the battery energy storage per unit mass is less than lithium.

However, sodium has an advantage — the element sodium is so abundant on Earth that it is thousands of times more abundant than lithium on Earth. There is a lot of sodium in the salt we eat, and there is a lot of sodium in seawater. Because of its abundance, sodium is much cheaper than lithium. In the market, the price of lithium carbonate as a raw material for lithium costs tens of thousands of yuan per ton; while the price of sodium chloride as a raw material for sodium is only a few thousand yuan per ton. Therefore, as a battery, one of the outstanding advantages of sodium batteries compared with lithium batteries is that they are cheap, which is a very core advantage for industrialization.

Other than that, sodium-ion batteries work very similarly to lithium-ion batteries. A sodium ion battery is a rechargeable electrochemical battery that mainly relies on sodium ions to move between the positive electrode and the negative electrode, and uses sodium ion intercalation compounds as the positive electrode material. The manufacturing equipment of sodium-ion batteries is also fully compatible with lithium-ion batteries. The production of sodium-ion batteries can continue to use lithium-ion battery equipment, and the conversion cost is low.

The future sodium-ion batteries is an important support and guarantee for lithium-ion batteries. The main application scenarios of sodium-ion batteries are not only in the field of energy storage, but also in communication base stations, low-end low-speed electric vehicles, electric bicycles, solar street lights and other fields that require low energy density. The high safety of sodium-ion batteries The technical route will be an important supplement to lithium-ion batteries.