300 cycles of charging and discharging remain stable, can sodium-sulfur batteries replace lithium batteries?

　　Recently, American scientists published a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, claiming that they have developed a new type of sodium-sulfur battery that solves the problems of dendrites commonly faced by similar batteries and makes the battery life longer-after 300 The performance is still stable after charging and discharging.

　　This is an important milestone in the commercialization of sodium-sulfur batteries, which is expected to replace the widely used lithium batteries in the future.

　　Lithium-ion batteries are currently widely used in smart phones and electric vehicles, but the raw materials for the production of lithium batteries are mainly lithium and cobalt. They not only have limited reserves, but also have a certain negative impact on the environment, including the use of large amounts of groundwater, soil pollution and water sources and high carbon emissions. Materials such as sodium and sulfur are cheaper, more readily available (sodium can be obtained from the ocean) and more environmentally friendly. In view of this, in the past 20 years, researchers have been working on sodium-based batteries that can work at room temperature.

　　Professor Arumgan Mantilam, the head of the latest research and the director of the Materials Research Institute of the University of Texas at Austin, said: "Sodium and sulfur are rich in content, harmless to the environment, and lower in cost. Sodium-sulfur batteries can be called a Kind of a 'dream battery'."

　　In two recent sodium battery studies conducted by the Mantilam team, scientists adjusted the composition of the electrolyte to help ions move back and forth between the cathode and anode, stimulating the charging and discharging of the battery. In addition, they also overcome a common problem in sodium batteries-needle-like structure dendrites grow on the anode of the battery, which can cause the battery to quickly age, short-circuit, and even catch fire and explode.

　　In order to achieve a stable, ambient temperature sodium-sulfur battery, they optimized the electrolyte structure while solving the problems of NaPS shuttle and dendritic formation. The results show that the new electrolyte can prevent sulfur from dissolving, thereby solving the problem of shuttle and dendrite. This allows the battery to last longer, and it still exhibits stable performance after 300 charge-discharge cycles.

　　In the past year, the price of lithium has skyrocketed, and people's calls for alternatives to lithium batteries have increased. Researchers plan to build on this breakthrough and test with larger batteries to see if they can be used in electric vehicles and the storage of renewable energy such as wind and solar energy.

　　Lithium-ion battery (LIB) has become the main energy storage solution in modern social life. Among them, lithium iron phosphate batteries are a perfect replacement for lead-acid batteries, and they are the first choice for grid-connected peak shaving, off-grid energy storage, photovoltaic energy storage, UPS, data center and other industries.