New electrolyte for sodium-ion batteries

Introduction
Sodium-ion batteries (NIBs) have been a subject of extensive research in the past years. As a
low-cost and abundant material, it exhibits great promise in becoming the next-generation
energy storage system. However, the development of NIBs was greatly impeded by the
instability of a protective film in the battery called solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI). Up until
the year 2020, a new electrolyte has been discovered that stabilizes this protective film and
drastically increases the durability of the NIBs – one of its primary drawbacks. This
investigation aims to explore the development of NIBs in society, their economic and
environmental benefits, as well as their interaction with the desalination industry.

Scientific background
In NIBs, sodium ions are dissolved by a solvent called the electrolyte. During charging,
sodium ions move from a positive electrode (cathode), which is being oxidized, to a negative
electrode (anode), which is being reduced. This redox reaction is reversed in discharging
phase. The recurrent process of charging
and discharging causes the electrolyte to
decompose the anode material, resulting in
the formation of a layer on the anode
surface known as the solid–electrolyte
interphase (SEI). This layer is crucial to the
battery’s performance as it inhibits further
decomposition of the anode. However, in
NIBs, this layer is easily dissolved by its conventional electrolyte due to high solubility of
sodium-based SEI components.

The new electrolyte in NIBs tackles this problem by minimizing SEI dissolution (Figure 2). It
consists of a 1.5 M sodium salt (NaFSI), a solvent mixture of trisphosphate (TFP) and
dimethyl carbonate (DMC) (nature energy, June 2022). There are two major working
principles of the new electrolyte:

First, its main solvent TFP is primarily comprised of elements C, H, O, and P which are small
in electronegativity differences. This contributes to a more evenly distributed attraction to
electrons in their covalent compound and an overall low polarity. As a result, TFP has a
lower attraction to SEI’s ionic/polar components and thus is less reactive towards it,
therefore effectively minimizing SEI dissolution (the reduced ionic conductivity due to low
polarity is compensated by the co-solvent DMC.)

Second, the new sodium salt NaFSI allows the formation of a less soluble SEI layer. When its
component Na+ cations and FSI- anion dissociates in TFP, the FSI- anion is more likely to
undergo a redox reaction with anode materials and decompose to form SEI than TFP since it
is more prone to donate electrons. This enables the formation of a more stable and insoluble
salt-derived SEI – containing FSI and other cations from the anode – hence reducing the
solubility of SEI and minimising its dissolution.
 (Figure 2)

Development and impact of NIBs in the society

Development of NIBs
The development of the new electrolyte for NIBs is driven by problem associated with the
most ubiquitous battery type - lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Despite LIBs’ excellent
performance, lithium is a rare material. This not only contributes to a significant increase in
LIBs price but also poses severe environmental damages since lithium mining practice
involves harmful activities such as deforestation and huge carbon emissions (Katwala, Aug
2018). Most importantly, it implies a concerning global electric energy storage crisis as LIBs
are running out. Therefore, it is pivotal to establish an alternative to LIBs, and this is when
the NIBs come into play. According to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the application
of the new electrolyte in NIBs enables them to maintain more than 80% of their
performance even after 1,000 charging and discharging cycles while delivering a capacity
comparable to that of LIBs (Hede, July 2022). This effectively addresses the key challenge of
low durability in NIBs, making them a promising replacement for LIBs, which also come with
enormous economic and environmental benefits.

Economic and environmental influence of NIBs

Firstly, given the copious abundance of sodium salt (NaCl) in the ocean, the extraction of
sodium is highly accessible (Lilley, May 2021). This means that while having difficulties in
mining lithium, tons of sodium could have been readily extracted to produce NIBs of similar
quality. Therefore, the material cost of NIBs is much cheaper than LIBs. According to PV
magazine, the cost of producing NIBs is between 20% to 40% lower than LIBs (Maisch,
March 2022), leading to an increase in NIBs production and a high attainability of NIBs in the
society (e.g., a lower-price energy bill in households). Furthermore, NIBs are much more
environmentally sustainable than LIBs. The established process called desalination through
which the sodium is extracted from the seawater offers a minimum energy-consumption and
greenhouse gas emission compared to the time-consuming mining of the lithium. According
to ScienceDirect, the carbon footprint of producing NIBs and LIBs is 10.15 kg CO2eq and
67.94 kg CO2eq respectively, with NIBs being significantly lesser than LIBs (Wang et al., Dec
2020).

Interaction between NIBs and desalination industry

Before the potential benefits of NIBs were recognized, desalination was mainly used to
remove brines (sodium salt) from seawater for drinking and agricultural purposes.
Consequently, this often resulted in highly concentrated brine being discharged back into
the ocean as waste, a process requiring careful management and a costly pumping system to
prevent harm to marine ecosystems (Chandler, Feb 2019). However, the invention of the
new electrolyte for NIBs offers a solution to this time-consuming and resource-intensive
process. Since NIBs production requires sodium ions, the excess brine from desalination can
now be directly sent to NIBs factories without incurring additional costs. Then, by using
simple processes like evaporation, sodium ions can be easily extracted from brine to
produce NIBs. Therefore, the advancement of NIBs could both benefit and be impacted by
the desalination industry, with NIBs production potentially reducing costs for desalination
while also being accelerated by the industry's output.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the invention of the new electrolyte for NIBs significantly ameliorates its
performance by effectively minimizing SEI dissolution. This enables NIBs to positively
influence society since it comes with numerous economic and environmental benefits, as
well as a potential benefit of reducing costs for the desalination industry.

Word count: 1000

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