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yesterday

Study Finds Sodium-Ion Hard-Carbon Anodes Charge Faster Than Lithium

Using a diluted-electrode technique, researchers isolated hard-carbon kinetics to show pore-filling as the bottleneck with lower activation energy for sodium.

Hard carbon serves as the critical negative electrode material underpinning the performance of SIBs. (Representational image)
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Oxford, Tokyo show faster sodium-ion battery charging

Overview

  • A Tokyo University of Science team led by Shinichi Komaba, with Yuki Fujii and Zachary T. Gossage, reports the findings in Chemical Science.
  • The diluted-electrode method mixes hard carbon with inactive aluminum oxide to remove ion transport limits that mask intrinsic behavior in dense electrodes.
  • Measurements show a higher apparent diffusion coefficient for sodium than for lithium in hard carbon, confirming faster intrinsic sodiation.
  • Pore-filling involving pseudo-metallic cluster formation is the rate-determining step, with sodium requiring less activation energy and showing reduced temperature sensitivity.
  • The results indicate that hard‑carbon sodium‑ion cells could be viable for high‑power use cases, though further development and validation remain necessary.