A team of scientists from China and Australia has found a way to improve sodium-sulfur batteries.
The developed batteries use carbon-based electrodes and a thermal decomposition process to change the reaction between sodium and sulfur. This made it possible to increase the capacity of the batteries and extend their service life, which sodium-sulfur batteries could not boast of.
The result is a battery with a capacity of 1017 mAh/g at room temperature, four times that of a lithium-ion battery. The sodium-sulfur battery retained about half of this capacity after 1000 recharge cycles. The team is pleased with the result but will not stop there.
This is a significant breakthrough in the development of renewable energy, which, while reducing costs in the long run, has several financial barriers to entry.
Shenlong Zhao
Leading researcher at the University of Sydney
The next target is batteries and larger batteries.