Materials scientists uncover source of degradation in sodium batteries

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Materials scientists from UC Santa Barbara uncover source of degradation in sodium batteries

View the complete news release at:https://www.news.ucsb.edu/2019/019555/toward-better-battery

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Batteries power our lives: we rely on them to keep our cell phones and laptops buzzing and our hybrid and electric cars on the road. But ever-increasing adoption of the most commonly used lithium-ion batteries may actually lead to increased cost and potential shortages of lithium — which is why sodium-ion batteries are being researched intensely as a possible replacement. They perform well, and sodium, an alkali metal closely related to lithium, is cheap and abundant.

The challenge? Sodium-ion batteries have shorter lifetimes than their lithium-based siblings.

Now, UC Santa Barbara computational materials scientist Chris Van de Walle and colleagues have uncovered a reason for this loss of capacity in sodium batteries: the unintended presence of hydrogen, which leads to degradation of the battery electrode. Van de Walle and co-authors Zhen Zhu and Hartwin Peelaerspublishedtheir findings in the journal Chemistry of Material

News Type: 

Research