Battery concepts beyond “Li-ion”: Materials aspects on sodium-ion, sodium-sulfur and solid-state batteries

Prof. Philipp Adelhelm

a Jena University, Institute of Technical Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry

b Center for Energy and Environmental Chemistry Jena (CEEC Jena)

E-mail: philipp.adelhelm@uni-jena.de

The rising demand for rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles and grid storage applications causes a lot of interest on alternatives to “standard Li-ion battery technology”. Major motivations are also directed towards using more low cost components and/or improving safety. Important concepts that are currently studied are sodium-ion batteries, solid state batteries as well as metal-chalcogen batteries (metal-oxygen and metal-sulfur).

This talk gives an overview on the different technologies, materials aspects, chances and challenges. Specific examples will be discussed including high capacity metal/carbon negative electrodes, graphite co-intercalation reactions and metal sulfides for solid state batteries. Considering metal-sulfur batteries, the “sulfur spillover” phenomenon will be discussed along with a sodium-sulfur battery based on a liquid cathode.