China has developed a high-voltage sodium-sulfur battery

A group of Chinese scientists has unveiled a new sodium-sulfur battery design that could radically change the approach to energy storage. With the help of chemical processes, they managed to create a battery that is extremely cheap to produce, but at the same time has a high energy consumption. This was announced on January 11 by Digital Trends.

The development is currently being tested in laboratories. It clarifies that it uses available ingredients: sulfur, sodium, aluminum and a chlorine-containing electrolyte. During the first tests, the battery showed an energy density of more than 2 thousand. W-h/kg. Experts say that this is much better than modern sodium-ion batteries, and in terms of characteristics it can compete even with lithium batteries.

Sulfur has always been considered the "white whale" in battery technology, as it can theoretically store large amounts of energy. However, the problem is that in standard lithium-sulfur batteries, this cell often leads to the formation of chemical byproducts that degrade performance and shorten service life.

In the new development, the scientists turned the approach around: instead of forcing sulfur to only accept electrons, they created a system where sulfur actually gives them away.

The principle of operation is that the battery uses a pure sulfur cathode and a simple aluminum foil anode. The key feature was the electrolyte, which is a mixture of aluminum chloride, sodium salts and chlorine. When the battery is discharged, the sulfur atoms at the cathode release electrons and react with chlorine to form sulfur chlorides. Meanwhile, sodium ions capture electrons and are deposited on the aluminum foil.

At the highest charge: the "eternal" battery will extend the life of pacemakers

The new technology will help improve the world's most durable batteries.

This chemical process solves the degradation problem inherent in sulfur batteries. The porous carbon layer holds the reactive substances, and the fiberglass separator prevents short circuits. This process proved to be stable and reversible.

Tests showed that the test cells survived 1,400 charge-discharge cycles before they began to lose significant capacity. Moreover, the battery has retained 95% of its charging capacity after more than a year of downtime. According to experts, this is a huge plus for long-term energy storage projects, when batteries may not be used for a long time.

Scientists named the price as one of the big advantages. Based on the price of the raw materials, the cost of a battery can be about $5 per 1 kWh. This is 10 times cheaper than many existing sodium-sulfur batteries and significantly cheaper than lithium-ion batteries. The possible mass production of the development could make renewable energy storage extremely cheap.

Scientists have also warned about some nuances. According to them, chlorine-containing electrolyte is corrosive and difficult to operate safely. In addition, the results were obtained on laboratory samples, not on fully packaged commercial batteries. It is specified that the transfer of technology from the laboratory to industrial production will be a huge engineering challenge.

Nevertheless, this study is a wake-up call. It shows that when standard materials such as lithium become too expensive or rare, a creative approach to "unconventional" chemistry can open up new perspectives that no one even suspects.

Charges for the mind: nanoswitches will help create "non-explosive" energy-intensive batteries

How scientists will make lithium-ion batteries safer and better

Earlier, on January 1, the International Air Transport Association banned the transportation of powerbanks and devices with lithium-ion batteries in luggage. According to the new rules, they can only be taken in hand luggage, but they cannot be carried on the upper shelves of the board.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.