Lithium-free battery breaks voltage barrier for ultra-cheap energy storage

Sodium batteries may have just crossed a critical threshold, moving into high-voltage territory and opening a realistic path toward sustainable, low-cost energy storage.

Unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries, sodium–sulfur batteries store energy using metallic sodium as the anode and elemental sulfur (S₈) as the cathode – two elements that are both abundant and inexpensive. ‘[They are a] much more sustainable and affordable way to store energy,’ says Hao Sun at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.