While everyone else was worrying about cheap oil and the future of electric cars, sodium batteries just got closer to becoming mainstream. This challenger to lithium ion technology has been around for a while but it has also been plagued by some inherent problems. Now, another one of these has been solved by researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Washington. The problem with sodium batteries are their limited capacity. Battery capacity is a top priority for any battery developer, especially in the EV space where a car’s attractiveness to buyers relies heavily on its range, which, in turn, depends on the car’s battery capacity. But like everything, there is a tradeoff. The greater the capacity, the higher the price of the battery and, therefore, the car. This is what makes the search for an alternative to costly lithium ion batteries so urgent. Sodium batteries […]