Big step towards sustainability: world’s first battery with 2 cations supports 1000 cycles

The battery has a mixture of lithium and sodium and aims to create a long-lasting, more sustainable and high-performance form of energy.

For the first time in the world, a team of researchers from the University of Limerick have developed a battery that could transform the future of electric vehicles and portable electronics.

Unlike traditional sodium-only batteries, this new Two-cation design combines the advantages of lithium and sodium to offer better performance, keeping sodium as the main component, making the technology more efficient and sustainable.

“For the first time, we have demonstrated that sodium-ion batteries can be ‘turboalimentadas‘ by combining sodium and lithium in a sodium-dominant two-cation electrolyte,” Associate Professor Geaney told . “This advance opens the door to more sustainable, high-performance battery chemistries.”

The new one will be published in the December issue of Nano Energyand describes the process until arriving at the battery design that allows lithium to act as a “capacity booster” within the electrolyte, powering a sodium ion system while maintaining long-term stability.

Lithium and sodium ions work together during charge and discharge cycles, allowing the cell to operate for up to 1,000 cycles.

“By introducing lithium and sodium cations, we effectively double the battery capacity, which would otherwise be lower than a typical sodium-ion battery. This has never been done before with the anode materials we used, which have a high predicted capacity for sodium-ion batteries”, says Abdu Ahad, who conceptualized the model.