 |
| Credit: Udovic/NIST |
When heated, this sodium-based hydride changes to the more open structure shown here (hydrogen atoms are omitted for clarity), featuring large, connected corridors through which charge-carrying sodium ions (in yellow) can travel with ease.
Rechargeable battery manufacturers may get a jolt from research performed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and several other institutions, where a team of scientists has discovered* a safe, inexpensive, sodium-conducting material that significantly outperforms all others in its class.
The team’s discovery is a sodium-based, complex metal hydride, a material with potential as a much cheaper alternative to the lithium-based conductors used in many rechargeable batteries. Because lithium is a comparatively rare commodity near the earth’s surface, the industry would prefer to build reusable batteries out of common ingredients that are both economical and inexhaustible.
The novel hydride—which has the formula Na2B10H10—might fit the bill, and not only because it is formed of the three easily obtainable elements of sodium, boron and hydrogen. There are other practical reasons as well: It is a stable inorganic solid, meaning it would pose fewer of the risks carried by many flammable liquids in traditional batteries, such as the potential for leaking or exploding. And compared to other sodium-based solids, it can enable more power output.
NIST:
Novel Sodium-Conducting Material Could Improve Rechargeable Batteries, Chad Boutin
No comments:
Post a Comment