(Invited) Challenges of Today for Na Based Batteries of the Future

• Published in: Meeting abstracts (Electrochemical Society) Vol. MA2020-02; no. 2; p. 523
• Main Author: Casas-Cabanas, Montserrat
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 23.11.2020
• ISSN: 2151-2043; 2151-2035
• DOI: 10.1149/MA2020-022523mtgabs

The global rise of Li-ion battery (LIB) production is linked with a number of challenges. From one side, the growing risks of demand-supply mismatch and supply constraints of the raw materials. From the other, environmental and social challenges linked with the mass production of LIBs become increasingly important as the market expands. Indeed, LIBs contain a number of critical raw (and/or toxic) materials, such as cobalt and natural graphite, whose suppliers concentrate in a number of third countries, including conflict zones. Within this scenario, Na-based batteries are rising as potential alternative technology to Li-ion batteries, as the combination of attractive properties potentially NIBs offer (i.e., low cost, sustainable precursors and secure raw material supplies), fill a niche and could represent an important step forward towards beyond Li technologies in certain applications where energy density is less critical. Na-ion chemistry suffers however from some intrinsic drawbacks compared to Li-ion (heavier and larger alkali ion, 0.33V larger standard potential) which tend to lower cell voltage and capacity. Nevertheless, with ongoing development, materials available for Na-ion cells should allow approaching the energy density of the present generation of Li-ion commercial cells. In this talk, the potential of Na-ion batteries will be thoroughly analyzed and our recent research regarding positive and negative electrode materials will be reviewed. Results related to several phosphate-based families of cathode materials will be shown, together with the challenges of developing competitive anode materials. Finally, a high-throughput screening approach capable of quickly revealing the possible existence of good ionic conductor materials in the huge structural and compositional space of existing explored databases will be discussed.