A cheap, rechargeable sodium-based battery could one day deliver high power at room temperature thanks to its hybrid solid electrolyte.

Electrolytes allow electrical charge to flow between a battery's electrodes. Liquid electrolytes can leak and tend to react with sodium metal, an abundant, low-cost material used for electrodes in some batteries, whereas purely solid electrolytes are poor conductors at room temperature. Shufeng Song at Chongqing University in China and his colleagues developed a hybrid solid electrolyte for sodium batteries by combining solid polyethylene oxide, sodium perchlorate and silica with an ionic liquid. They tested this in a sodium-metal battery and observed high conductivity at room temperature — a step towards increased power — and high stability over 56 cycles.

The electrolyte is a promising material for safer and more efficient sodium batteries, the authors suggest.

J. Mater. Chem. A http://doi.org/b2vm (2017)