Cooking up sustainable battery materials in the microwave

Simple and sustainable routes to making better anodes for rechargeable batteries are being cooked up by chemists at St Andrews University, UK.

A team led by chemist Robert Armstrong has been working to improve the range of anode materials available for sodium-ion rechargeable batteries. These batteries could rival lithium-ion batteries, and can be made from a much more sustainable and cheap source – salt.

Anodes for lithium-ion batteries are often based on carbon. But while small lithium-ions fit nicely into graphite, larger sodium ions don’t. Alternative anode materials under investigation include molecules containing redox-active organic groups , including carboxylates, imines, and azo ones. Synthesis usually involves conventional solvent-based reactions.