Eli5: Given their location on the periodic table and the abundance of sodium compared to lithium, why aren’t we using sodium-ion batteries?
In: 12
So there are two big reasons that sodium-ion batteries aren’t used.
The first one is that the energy density is much lower. Both energy stored per volume, and energy stored per weight are about half of that of lithium-ion batteries. When it comes to batteries that is basically one of the most important factors. And there was no reason to invest in tech that was simply going to be worse at that.
Second, they can survive way fewer charge cycles. Usually around a few 100 to a 1000 for Sodium. Where as Lithium Ion is good for over 3000.
These few disadvantages meant that a lot of the investments went into Li-ion batteries instead of Sodium. Although interest in sodium is growing because sodium is significantly more abundant than Lithium, so it *might* have a place in grid-scale storage where weight isn’t really a big deal.
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