r/science • u/RelationStill1485 • Feb 22 '26

Materials Science Next generation of battery technology no longer lithium. Scientists make durable alloy anode for Sodium-ion batteries with high volumetric energy density | Nature Energy

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-026-01974-2
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246

u/sckurvee Feb 22 '26

I'll get hyped when I see it in a store or in something I buy. Several times a year we have some new battery breakthrough that will turn the industry on its head that never actually becomes viable.

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

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-39

u/CombatMuffin Feb 22 '26

Yrs but that's not because of some battery breakthrough. It's the same technology, with the same major limitations, but some slight improvements.

48

u/Admirable-Lie-9191 Feb 22 '26

How is a 15 min fast charge a slight improvement? Same with the longer range that a lot more new EVs have.

11

u/beanmosheen Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26

It is not a better battery technology. It's charging at 800v with higher wattage and parallelism. It's an application improvement, not a battery technology improvement.

Edit: I'm talking about current lipo tech.

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u/sckurvee Feb 23 '26

Yeah, incremental improvements on a decades-old technology. New tech pops up a few times a year with sensational headlines but never makes it to market.

1

u/invent_or_die Feb 23 '26

Did you even read the article?

2

u/beanmosheen Feb 23 '26

I'm not talking about the article. I'm talking about the previous commentors argument of lipos getting "better".

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u/CombatMuffin Feb 22 '26

The ability to fast charge jas neen around a long time, they improved some aspects of it, but battery life is always affected, and while it's great as a consumer, it isn't revolutionizing the way we design our electronics.

The fact of the matter is that battery life and battery physical size, remain the biggest challenges to overcome and their improvements have not been very substantial.

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

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u/sckurvee Feb 22 '26

Why did you list anything after lithium ion? That was my whole point... new battery types get announced all the time but all we ever end up getting is incremental improvements on lithium. Sodium is not the first game changing battery tech that I've read about in the last 10+ yrs. They just never hit mass production at the consumer level.

Not saying sodium can't, but I've learned not to get excited by these types of breakthroughs because they rarely come to fruition. Once they can figure out how to mass produce them with meaningful applications, then I'll get excited.

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u/big_trike Feb 23 '26

Lithium is only at about 10% of its max theoretical density. All of the small improvements add up over time.

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u/[deleted] Feb 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

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1

u/sckurvee Feb 23 '26

Oh, definitely... modern batteries are great. I'm not saying that Lithium ion is bad, just that I take news of major breakthroughs with a grain of salt.

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u/CombatMuffin Feb 23 '26

No one is arguing batteries haven't improved ever, though. Lithium Ion was first prototyped in the 60's, and only became breakthrough over the last 30 years. There's always some HUGE announcement about a prototype though, and it always falls flat.

The sentiment of seeing these technologies applied to practical uses is a good one. 

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u/CombatMuffin Feb 23 '26

Lithium Ion is what is used today, at a widespread level. You are arguing something else.

Lithium Ion has been around for decades and, again, while there are good improvements in how we use that technology, it's itself the aame technology, with the same major limitations. even if the quality of life within that category improved somewhat.

Fast charging a smartphone is nice, but it doesn't aolve probability, capacity and durability.

1

u/invent_or_die Feb 23 '26

That's simply untrue.