Sodium Ion Battery vs. Lithium Ion Battery

As is well known, lithium-ion batteries have always been a very popular form of environmentally friendly energy, whereas sodium-ion batteries are potential sources of energy making a comeback into the public eye. What commonalities or differences exist between them? With your curiosity in tow, let&#;s explore this together.

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What Is Lithium Ion Battery?

Perhaps you haven&#;t realized yet, but lithium-ion batteries have long been an integral part of our daily lives. They are a common type of rechargeable battery, primarily generating electricity through the movement of lithium ions within them. Research into lithium-ion batteries can be traced back to the s.

Related Article: Ultimate Guide of Lithium Battery

Advantages Of Lithium Ion Battery

Long Cycle Life

Lithium-ion batteries have a cycle life of 3,000 to 8,000 cycles, with some manufacturers even managing to maintain a usable life of around 15 years.

High Energy Density

Lithium batteries have a considerable advantage in terms of energy density, so they are small in volume and light in weight.

No Memory Effect

Lithium-ion batteries do not suffer from the memory effect. Therefore, when you use them, you don&#;t need to fully discharge before recharging.

Environmentally Friendly

Lithium-ion batteries do not contain toxic heavy metals and do not cause environmental pollution.

Related Article: 11 Benefits of Lithium-ion Battery

Disadvantages Of Lithium Ion Battery

Cost Issues

Lithium resources are not abundant, and 70% of lithium is located in South America. With the rise in raw material prices, the production cost of lithium batteries also needs to be strictly controlled within a suitable range.

Safety Issues

Lithium-ion batteries must be equipped with a BMS (Battery Management System) because they are very sensitive to overcharging, over-discharging, and high temperatures, which can easily cause damage.

Operating Temperature Range

Lithium-ion batteries struggle to perform at their normal levels under extreme climate conditions. This is especially the case when using the batteries in cold regions, where their performance can be easily affected.

Application

Lithium-ion batteries play an important role in energy storage systems, electric vehicles, medical devices, emergency backup power supplies, and mobile devices.

What Is A Sodium Ion Battery?

Sodium-ion batteries are rechargeable batteries that charge and discharge through the movement of sodium ions between the positive and negative electrodes. This is very similar to the working principle of lithium-ion batteries. Due to the limited availability of lithium resources and the rising prices of lithium, sodium-ion batteries regained the interest of researchers in the early s. After years of research, the performance of sodium-ion batteries has significantly improved, but they are still rapidly developing. There is still a way to go before sodium-ion batteries can be commercially produced on an industrial scale.

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Advantages Of Sodium Ion Battery

Good Safety Performance

After rigorous testing by researchers, the safety performance of sodium-ion batteries is even higher than that of lithium-ion batteries, and they will never catch fire or explode easily.

Good Performance in High and Low Temperature 

Sodium-ion batteries have a wider operating temperature range. It can continue to discharge at -40&#; and maintain 90% of its capacity at minus -20&#;. This is a very good data.

Abundant Raw Materials

The content of sodium resources in the earth&#;s crust is as high as 2.75%, and it covers the whole world. This will be a rare boost for the subsequent large-scale promotion of sodium batteries.

Cost Advantage

Abundant sodium resources reduce the raw material cost of sodium batteries to a certain extent. And the positive and negative fluids of sodium-ion batteries use cheaper aluminum foil. The combination of the two can reduce the material cost of sodium batteries by 30%-40%.

Environmentally Friendly

Sodium batteries, like lithium batteries, are environmentally friendly batteries and have very little impact on the environment.

Disadvantages Of Sodium Ion Battery

Low Energy Density

The energy density of sodium batteries is between 110-160Wh/L, which is slightly lower than that of lithium-ion batteries. There is still significant room for improvement.

Short Cycle Life

The cycle life of sodium-ion batteries is around cycles. Although this is much higher than that of lead-acid batteries, it will take some time to catch up with lithium-ion batteries.

Application

Sodium batteries have not yet been fully commercialized and are mainly used in cost-sensitive fields such as low-speed electric vehicles and grid energy storage.

Sodium Ion Battery Vs. Lithium Ion Battery

The advantages, disadvantages, and application scenarios of the two batteries are introduced above. Next, let&#;s make a more intuitive comparison.

Voltage

Sodium-ion battery: voltage range is 2.8~3.5V.

Lithium-ion battery: voltage range is 3.0~4.5V.

Energy Density

Sodium-ion batteries are between 100 and 150 Wh/kg. 

Lithium-ion batteries are between 150 and 250 Wh/kg. 

Although the energy density of sodium-ion batteries is slightly lower, it is expected to catch up with lithium-ion batteries within the next two years as technology advances.

Cycle Life

Sodium-ion battery: about times.

Lithium-ion battery: times and above, even up to times.

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Low-temperature Performance

The low-temperature performance of sodium-ion batteries is better than that of lithium-ion batteries, and the discharge rate can still be maintained above 90% even at -20°C.

Rate Performance

Sodium-ion batteries are superior in rate performance. It can charge quickly, reaching 90% charge in 15 minutes.

Over-discharge

The BMS (Battery Management System) of lithium-ion batteries can prevent over-discharge, as over-discharge can cause irreversible damage to the battery.

Sodium-ion batteries allow discharge to 0V, and over-discharge does not have any effect on them.

Cost

Sodium-ion batteries do not use rare metals, and the raw materials are abundant. It is reported that the future cost of sodium-ion batteries is expected to be more than 20% lower than that of lithium batteries.

Safety Performance

Sodium-ion batteries have a wider safety margin and are able to withstand tests such as overcharging, over-discharging, short circuit, puncture, and compression without catching fire or exploding.

Applications

Lithium-ion batteries are used in a wide range of applications, from tiny wearable devices to large industrial uses.

Sodium-ion batteries, with their lower energy density and larger volume and weight, are not suitable for use in portable mobile devices. However, they are expected to become an important supplement in the field of energy storage batteries and in the low-speed electric vehicle sector.

Are Sodium-ion Batteries Better Than Lithium?

Based on the comprehensive analysis above, it is difficult to conclude which is better than the other, as each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Who is better depends on your or the market&#;s needs. For example, if you need a lower price, then sodium-ion batteries are cheaper. If you need energy with a longer lifespan, then lithium-ion batteries are more worthwhile.

Will Sodium-Ion Batteries Replace Lithium&#;

It is still difficult to conclude whether sodium batteries will replace lithium batteries in the future. Although sodium batteries have greater advantages in terms of cost, resources, and safety, further breakthroughs in energy density and charging/discharging performance are still required. With the further development of technology, sodium-ion batteries are not limited to specific fields and have a wider range of applications. Only then might it be possible to discuss the idea of replacement.

In the field of electrochemical energy storage and home energy storage, lithium-ion batteries occupy a dominant position, and China's installed capacity accounts for as high as 91%. However, with the continuous expansion of the lithium battery market, the contradiction of lithium resource shortage has gradually emerged.

The sodium-ion battery has attracted much attention due to its advantages of abundant resources, low price, and high safety, and is an important supplement and strategic reserve for lithium-ion batteries.

1. Technical features and advantages of sodium ion batteries

Due to the rich content of sodium in nature, the upstream raw materials of sodium-ion batteries are relatively cheap, which can effectively supplement lithium-ion battery technology. At the cell level, the constituent elements of the cathode material for sodium-ion batteries are mainly Na, Cu, Fe, and Mn, all of which are relatively cheap and come from a wide range of sources. Compared lithium vs sodium battery, with the constituent elements Li, Ni, Co, etc. of lithium-ion battery cathode materials, the cost advantage of sodium battery is obvious.

The anode materials are mostly carbon-based materials, which are usually obtained by high-temperature carbonization using anthracite biomass, phenolic resin, etc. as precursors. The raw materials have a wide range of sources and low prices, and the carbonization process is simpler than the graphitization process of graphite anode. In terms of current collectors, cheaper aluminum foil can be used instead of copper foil, further reducing the cost of sodium-ion batteries.

In terms of working principle, sodium-ion batteries are similar to lithium-ion batteries. During charging, Na+ is extracted from the cathode material, passes through the electrolyte, passes through the separator, and is embedded in the anode material.

During the discharge process, Na+ is released from the anode material, and returns to the cathode material through the electrolyte and separator again. At the same time, during the charging and discharging process, the same number of electrons will be transferred in the external circuit to maintain the charge balance of the battery system.

Therefore, combined with the characteristics of the sodium-ion battery itself, it has the following characteristics and advantages:

&#; The production equipment of lithium-ion batteries can be used for the production of sodium-ion batteries after simple improvement, with less equipment and process investment, providing hardware support for the transformation from lithium batteries to sodium batteries;

&#; Compared with lithium ions, sodium ions have lower solvation energy, stronger interfacial ion diffusion ability, and higher ionic conductivity of the electrolyte. As a result, the rate performance of sodium-ion batteries is better, and high power input and output can be achieved;

&#; Sodium-ion batteries have better high and low temperature performance, and can work safely under wide temperature (-40°C~80°C) conditions;

&#; Sodium-ion batteries show good safety performance in the safety project test.

2. What are the challenges in the current development of sodium-ion batteries?

At present, the industrialization of sodium-ion batteries in top 10 sodium-ion battery companies in the world is developing rapidly, but there are still some challenges to be overcome, mainly including the following aspects:

&#; The cycle life needs to be further improved. Most of the current commercialized sodium-ion batteries have less than cycles, which is far below the expected level;

&#; There is still a certain gap between the actual capacity of the electrode material and the theoretical capacity, especially the first cycle Coulombic efficiency and capacity of the anode material, which leads to a large gap between the actual energy density and the theoretical energy density;

&#; Further take advantage of the low solvation energy of Na+ to achieve fast charging and fast discharging at the level of several minutes (above 6C);

&#; Construct sodium-ion battery aging, failure and thermal runaway models to further improve the safety performance of sodium-ion batteries;

&#; Optimize the production and assembly process of each component of the sodium ion battery, give full play to the low cost advantage of the raw material of the sodium ion battery, and then realize the large-scale application.

Electrode material

The structure of oxide materials is unstable, and there are many side reactions on the surface. Compared with lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries are less stable in air due to the increased alkalinity, hydrophilicity and solubility of sodium;

Prussian blue materials have many structural defects and high lattice water content. In the preparation process of Prussian blue materials, the simple chemical precipitation method is mostly used, which will lead to the hydration of the Prussian blue material lattice and produce various adverse effects;

Polyanionic materials have low intrinsic electronic conductivity. Its crystal structure is a three-dimensional framework structure formed by the interconnection of octahedrons and tetrahedrons, which leads to poor kinetics of electron migration within it;

Carbon-based materials have low Coulombic efficiency and unclear electrochemical mechanisms. Carbon-based materials are currently the most widely used anode materials for sodium-ion batteries, and their electrochemical performance has been greatly improved. However, the coulombic efficiency of carbon-based anode materials is low due to the occurrence of side reactions or irreversible intercalation reactions during the charge and discharge process, and there is still a certain distance from the commercial standard.

Electrolyte, separator and battery cell

At present, most sodium ion electrolytes use organic solvents as carriers, and a certain concentration of sodium salt is added to them. Under the condition of wide working temperature range, the volatility, instability and coagulation of organic solvents require further exploration of the mechanism of action and compatibility between the components of the solvent or sodium salt in the electrolyte.

Currently commercialized battery separators mainly include polyethylene and polypropylene separators, which have excellent mechanical properties, chemical stability and low price. However, due to inherent disadvantages, such as poor thermal stability and poor wettability to the electrolyte of sodium-ion batteries, it is not suitable for sodium-ion batteries.

Therefore, it is particularly important to find new separators that can match the sodium-ion battery system. The development of low-cost, high-safety, and mass-producible Na-ion battery separators is worth exploring.

The core problem of sodium-ion battery devices is the aging and failure mechanism of batteries. Compared with lithium-ion batteries with mature technology, commercial sodium-ion batteries are still in their infancy, and the aging and failure mechanisms of their cells are still unclear, especially in large-scale sodium-ion battery energy storage power stations.

3. Key development directions of sodium-ion batteries

There are two key development directions for sodium-ion batteries, including the development of key technologies for ultra-long cycle life sodium-ion batteries and further improvement of the energy density of sodium-ion batteries.

Focus on the development of key technologies for ultra-long cycle life sodium-ion batteries, mainly including: electrode material crystal structure regulation, microstructure design, and preparation method optimization. Thus, a high-performance electrode material with stable structure, good uniformity, simple preparation process, and environmental protection is obtained.

Another key development direction is to further increase the energy density of sodium-ion batteries (>200Wh/kg). The aim is to develop high-voltage cathode materials and phosphorus-based anodes or non-anode technologies to achieve the adaptation between high-voltage cathodes and low-voltage, high-capacity anode materials.

Solid-state sodium-ion batteries replace traditional electrolytes and separators, and on the basis of reducing the quality of sodium-ion batteries, strive to use metal-containing sodium composite negative electrodes to build high-voltage sodium-ion batteries. Bipolar battery and moduleless battery pack technology can effectively reduce the total mass of the sodium-ion battery energy storage system and increase the total energy density of the battery pack.

Related articles: Top 10 sodium battery electrolyte suppliers, Top 10 sodium-ion batteries anode materials suppliers in the world

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