Fun fact, sodium metal has also been used to directly make wire. It has some compelling properties.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/06/08/1827250/the-los...

Lithium iron phosphate batteries are also safer than lithium ion batteries, and are already in wide production and use.

It’s great if we have more battery chemistries. It would also be great if people would recognize that thermal runaway in lithium batteries is already a solved problem. This would enable updating fire and building regulations, and allow installation of more batteries.

Interesting. It will also cause geopolitical changes because lithium is a rare earth mineral. And Sodium is obviously abundant.

This sounds still very academic though and be aware that these things take time to industrialise. Also sometimes it doesn't pan out in the end.

The fire hazard might be reduced but of course any battery storing so much energy in a small place has some kind of hazard. Hopefully the runaway fire providing its own oxygen is solved here though, this is the main reason it's so hard to put the lithium battery fires out.

Feels like the article is overstating the risks of Li-ion. Modern Li-ion battery packs from reputable manufacturers are remarkably safe. An EV with Li-ion is still an order of magnitude safer than an ICE car. Yeah it can take a while for the thermal runaway to dissipate completely.. but it’s not a huge issue. You just have to keep it cool so it doesn’t set fire to other flammable materials (there are inflatable pools firefighter can use to surround the car with water)

Badly made Li-ion packs are a huge risk. But that’s a QA/Certification problem as with anything else (badly made charging bricks are also a risk.. don’t buy them on Temu). There have been CT scans published now showing how big a difference there is in the manufacturing of good and bad cells.

My knowledge may be out-of-date, but sodium-ion battery has a 30-50% lower energy density to lithium (200 Wh/kg vs 300-400). My understanding is it will be confined to cheaper solutions.

Wouldn’t mind not having lithium in my pocket. And in ears for that matter (earbuds)

Look at where is Li and where is Na on that list. BTW a pure Natrium is also a very aggressive thing.

This could potentially open doors for short-haul e-aviation. Very interesting

In addition to the article’s stated benefits of faster charging than Li-ion, less temperature sensitivity, and lower propensity of thermal runaway, does switching to sodium also potentially address a raw materials problem? (Imagine if desalination could be made ecologically viable by harvesting the waste sodium for batteries…)

And what’s the downside? More complex chemistry to make the cathode?