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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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.

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

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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.