Written By VS Maran (Grade 9)
Electric vehicles today, use lithium-based batteries to charge their vehicles, and take a lot of time, about 4 to 20 hours to get fully charged. Lithium, is harmful to the nature too and not found easily.
To replace this, sodium batteries can be used, which is made up of Sodium metal, that is in abundance as well as easily available. Since it’s easily available, the cost of these batteries are way lesser than lithium batteries. They only take 15 to 20 minutes to charge up, which is very less as compared to the lithium-based batteries. These can be used in both large and small vehicles, making it an overall useful product!
These batteries, are also being tested in different vehicles by scientists and apparently, it has been successful in each of the cases when being compared to lithium batteries. Though lithium based batteries are largely recognised, its major defect is that it does not agree with the environment and is an expensive metal, which many of them may not be able to afford !
Since it is less reactive than lithium ion batteries, it reduces the chances of fire and explosion. To make these batteries more sustainable, powerful and conductive, they can be combined with sulphur. The Sodium Sulphur battery, is also an efficient option to switchover from lithium-based batteries.
Last but not the least, lithium batteries have a durability of 2 to 3 years, whereas the sodium ion batteries, have a durability of about 15 years, which is way longer than the lithium based ones!
Hence, sodium-based batteries are considered better than the lithium-based ones offering numerous advantages. They not only provide more eco-friendly options but are also cost effective.
These batteries have the potential to revolutionise the energy storage industry!
Featured Image Courtesy – Fortune
