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Sodium-ion batteries have started to appear in cars and home storage

(cleantechnica.com)
160 points xbmcuser | 1 comments | 23 Oct 25 01:36 UTC | HN request time: 0.2s | source
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president_zippy ◴[23 Oct 25 05:29 UTC] No.45678438[source]▶
Are there any better sources we should read for how and why sodium-ion batteries are better than lithium-ion batteries?

All I know is that the charge to mass ratio of an Na+ ion is less than that of an Li+ ion, and that elemental Na and Li are both highly-reactive with violent exothermic reactions when exposed to water. I need someone with chemistry or materials science experience to help me explain what the advantages are and how those advantages exist.

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ViewTrick1002 ◴[23 Oct 25 05:53 UTC] No.45678583[source]▶
They aren’t better.

The allure is cheaper input materials, potentially very long lifespans and creating a hedge against the boom and bust cycle of the lithium market.

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1. toast0 ◴[23 Oct 25 06:11 UTC] No.45678713[source]▶
Cheaper and longer lifespan is certainly better for some applications. Less charge density by weight and volume is not better, but may be an acceptable tradeoff.