Sodium-ion battery study offers power and energy breakthrough with new organic cathode

The push for high-density alternative battery chemistries continues with sodium-ion solutions, which are gaining traction in manufacturing and production. Recent announcements by Hithium for a sodium-ion product for energy storage highlight that despite energy density challenges, material diversification and abundant resources create new opportunities.

Now, a new study shows The Dincă Group at Princeton has developed a high-energy sodium-ion cathode that shows promise to potentially outperform many lithium-ion counterparts.

Their cathode material, bis-tetraaminobenzoquinone (TAQ), is an organic layered solid that enables both high energy and power densities at a scale suitable for commercialization. This material has been tested for lithium-ion solutions as well.

In the study, TAQ applied to a sodium-ion battery type achieves a high theoretical capacity of 355 mAh/g per formula unit through a four-electron redox process, delivering an electrode-level energy density of 606 Wh/kg (90 wt % active material) with excellent cycling stability.

This is significantly higher than conventional sodium-ion cathodes (100-150 Wh/kg) and competes with lithium-ion batteries (150-250 Wh/kg). Its electrode-level power density reaches 31.6 kW/kg, with full-cell energy density of 472 Wh/kg when charged in 90 seconds, though these are in lab conditions versus scale manufacturing products.

A key innovation is the use of carbon nanotubes as a binder to improve electron transport and material utilization. “The binder we chose, carbon nanotubes, facilitates the mixing of TAQ crystallites and carbon black particles, leading to a homogeneous electrode,” said Tianyang Chen, PhD researcher and first author of the paper, to the Princeton University Department of Chemistry publication.

“The carbon nanotubes closely wrap around TAQ crystallites and interconnect them. Both of these factors promote electron transport within the electrode bulk, enabling an almost 100% active material utilization, which leads to almost theoretical maximum capacity.”

Beyond energy performance, TAQ offers practical advantages: stability against air and moisture, high-temperature resilience, and environmental sustainability. The TAQ-based sodium-ion batteries are claimed to be a commercially viable and sustainable alternative for large-scale energy storage, including grid storage, data centers, and electric vehicles.

“Everyone understands the challenges that come with having limited resources for something as important as batteries, and lithium certainly qualifies as ‘limited’ in a number of ways,” said Mircea Dincă, the well-known group leader and author on the paper.

“Sodium is literally everywhere. For us, going after batteries that are made with really abundant resources like the organic matter and seawater is among our greatest research dreams.”

Dincă further added on the X platform another assessment: “Best sodium-ion battery cathode out there, bar none! High energy, high power, long lasting, safe and cheap batteries made from C, N, O, H, and Na!”

Adding, in response to a question about volumetric energy density look like, Dincă said “better than Prussian Blue Analogues”

The study, funded by Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).