Improving rechargeable batteries using sodium

The lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery is the predominant commercial form of rechargeable battery, widely used in portable electronics and electrified transportation. Containing chemicals like manganese, cobalt and nickel, lithium batteries are expensive and use comparatively rare minerals, with potentially harmful environmental consequences. Lithium ion batteries also have a tendency to overheat, can be damaged at high voltages, and have, on occasions, caused fires.

To address these shortcomings, UNSW, with the help of Vecor Technologies, is developing cost-effective, efficient rechargeable batteries with alternative materials to expensive and strategically sensitive lithium.

With substantial funding invested by Vecor to establish dedicated research laboratories for research and product development, led by Dr. Sajjad Mofarah, Associate Professor Pramod Koshy, and Professor Charles C. Sorrell of the UNSW School of Materials Science and Engineering, patented technologies developed by UNSW team members are opening up globally competitive commercial opportunities.

Vecor CEO Mark Ramsey said the company’s research partnership with UNSW recently moved into the area of energy storage with support from the Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy.

“As a company we concentrate on using recycled and commonly available materials to reduce environmental impacts and reduce supply chain risks in key industries. We are particularly interested in exploring how to effectively utilize sodium, instead of lithium, in batteries. Unlike lithium, sodium is an abundant resource – the sixth most common element in the Earth’s crust – and can be extracted without significant environmental consequences,” said Mr Ramsey.

The processes developed at UNSW, based on Dr Mofarah’s original research, uses relatively simples facilities in a process which is neither expensive nor dangerous. Performed at room temperature, the methods used can be scaled up to production capacity. 

Associate Professor Koshy said that while current work is limited to a range of different cathode materials and designs, the collaboration has recently expanded to include colleagues from UNSW School of Chemistry, working in anodes and Deakin University, working on pouch cells. 

“By bringing these groups together, we now have the capacity to create larger complete battery systems,” Associate Professor Koshy explained, adding that these technologies straddle three key technological areas and represent key devices for energy storage:

• Nanomaterials
• Batteries
• Pseudocapacitors

“With the respective estimated 2027 global markets for these three technologies valued at US$107 billion, US$215 billion, and US$17 billion respectively, major economic opportunities will be gained with the development of materials that can enter these markets,” Professor Sorrell said.