High rechargeable sodium metal-conducting polymer batteries

Rechargeable lithium batteries accelerated the wireless revolution over the last two decades, and they are now a mature technology for transportation applications in electric vehicles (EV). However, numerous studies have concluded that the proven lithium reserves can hardly absorb the growth in demand. Therefore, sustainable sodium batteries are being considered to overcome the lithium resource shortages that may arise from large-scale application in EVs and stationary energy storage. It is difficult to find a suitable host material for reversible Na-ion storage due to the size of the Na+ ion (0.102 nm) compared to the Li+ ion (0.076 nm). Here we report a low cost and simple sodium technology that is based on a metal-free cathode material. Sodium metal was used as the anode with a conducting polymer cathode and electrochemically tested in a liquid electrolyte. With this technology, a host material for Na intercalation is not required, and because a polymer conductor is used, the size of the Na ion is not an issue. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.