Watch out lithium-ion batteries! There is new material in town, and it may just make sodium-ion batteries more efficient than lithium-ion ones, particularly in speed of charge.
The new material was discovered and demonstrated by researchers at the Nagoya Institute of Technology (NITech) in Japan.
Lithium-ion batteries are near ubiquitous and with good reason. They are highly efficient. However, lithium is a very limited and costly resource and has sometimes even been labeled as the reason electric car adoption has not happened faster.
Sodium-ion could soon become an alternative that will be both cheaper and more accessible. Not only is sodium abundant on Earth but sodium-based components have an ideal crystal structure design that could yield much faster charging times.