Sodium battery vs. lithium battery: The future in question

The arrival of sodium batteries on the market is creating a real buzz! Did you know that CATL, an international company, recently announced the production of its sodium battery with a warranty of 800,000 kilometers or 18 years? The same goes for the French company TIAMAT, which has launched its own version of the sodium battery... These new developments could potentially disrupt various industrial sectors.

1- Understanding sodium batteries and their advantages/disadvantages

The sodium battery

The sodium battery is a rechargeable device that exploits sodium ions (Na+) as the main charge carriers. Although it shares similarities with the lithium battery, sodium is the active material. Essentially made up of three parts(cathode, anode and electrolyte*), it generates energy during discharge and recharges in the opposite direction.

• The cathode is the battery's positive pole. It's usually made of oxide or phosphate materials, which can interact with sodium ions.

• Theanode is the negative pole, usually made from carbon or graphite (and similar materials), which can store sodium ions.

• Theelectrolyte is the medium in which sodium ions move between the cathode and the anode. It can be liquid, solid or a combination of both.

During discharge, sodium ions are released from the anode to the cathode through the electrolyte, generating a flow of electrons in the external circuit. This is what supplies energy.

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During recharging, the ions flow from the cathode to the anode, always passing through the electrolyte...

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2- Sodium battery vs. lithium battery

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The benefits of sodium batteries‍

1. Sodium abundance

Sodium, abundant in sea salt, makes sodium batteries potentially cheaper and more accessible than lithium batteries, whose materials are rarer.

(According to Europe 1sodium is 500 times more present than lithium).

‍2. Economical

Thanks to the abundance of sodium and the use of relatively simple materials, the sodium battery remains less expensive to produce, making it attractive for large-scale applications, such as energy storage on power grids.‍

3. Durability

The production and recycling process for sodium batteries has a reduced environmental impact compared with lithium batteries, which frequently involve the extraction of rare metals.

‍4. Security

Sodium batteries offer greater chemical and thermal stability, reducing the risk of fire and explosion caused by lithium batteries. In fact, they withstand a wider range of temperatures (high or low), although they remain sensitive to humid environments.

‍5. Innovation

The sodium battery is still in the development phase, leaving opportunities for innovation and improvement, particularly in terms of energy density and performance.

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Disadvantages of sodium batteries

1. Energy density

Despite research efforts, sodium batteries still lag behind lithium batteries in terms of energy storage performance for the same volume or weight. As a result, their application to our everyday devices is not optimal.

‍2. Load speed

Sodium batteries take longer to charge than lithium batteries, although some companies have developed more competitive prototypes that can be recharged in just 5 minutes.

‍3. Maturity

As sodium battery technology is more recent and less developed than lithium batteries, it still offers fertile ground for future improvements and innovations.