KAIST develops sodium battery capable of charging in seconds

According to KAIST, sodium, which is over 500 times more abundant than lithium, has recently garnered significant attention for its potential in sodium-ion battery technologies.

However, the researchers said that existing sodium-ion batteries face fundamental limitations, including lower power output, constrained storage properties, and longer charging times, necessitating the development of next-generation energy storage materials.

With this, the research team, led by  Professor Jeung Ku Kang from KAIST’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, developed a hybrid energy storage system which integrates anode materials typically used in batteries with cathodes suitable for supercapacitors.

This combination allowed for the device to achieve high storage capacities and rapid charge-discharge rates, positioning it as a viable next-generation alternative to lithium-ion batteries, according to its developers.

However, the researchers found that the development of a hybrid battery with high-energy and high-power density required an improvement to the slow energy storage rate of battery-type anodes as well as the enhancement of the relatively low capacity of supercapacitor-type cathode materials.