Lithium-air batteries have been one of the supposed saviors of electric vehicles, with ultra-high energy density. Some researchers at the Institute of Physical Chemistry at Justus-Liebig-University Gießen in Gießen, Germany have developed Sodium-air battery technology they say is far better than Lithium-air. The key flaw of Lithium-air batteries is, according to these researchers, their inability to be recharged – however the IBM lithium-air battery researcher I spoke with last Spring said Li-Air batteries could very well be recharged, but that it would be a fairly slow recharge rate.
The Sodium-air battery demonstrated by the researchers have an energy density of 1600 watt-hours/kilogram which is 10x the density of today’s lithium-ion batteries, but falls well short of lithium-air batteries. Unfortunately the batteries quickly degrade and are useless after only 8 charge cycles.
What may make Sodium-air batteries attractive is that Sodium is an abundant and inexpensive material, unlike Lithium.
For more details see:
Sodium-air battery offers rechargeable advantages compared to Li-air batteries
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