Research by a UCLA team led by Professor Richard Kaner, Dr. Maher El-Kady, and graduate student Zhiyin (Tara) Yang is featured on the front cover of ChemSusChem, a leading journal in sustainable energy technologies. The highlighted study demonstrates a promising strategy to improve the performance and durability of sodium-ion batteries as lithium supplies tighten and global interest in next-generation energy storage grows.
Lithium-ion batteries have become essential to daily life, powering consumer electronics, electric vehicles and renewable-energy storage systems. But as demand for electrification grows, worldwide lithium supplies are increasingly strained. Lithium is geologically limited, found in only a few parts of the world, and increasingly expensive to extract, prompting researchers to explore alternatives.
Sodium-ion batteries have emerged as one of the most promising candidates. Sodium is roughly 1,000 times more abundant than lithium and is widely distributed around the world, offering the potential for a more sustainable and resilient supply chain. However, sodium’s larger ionic size makes it more difficult for the ions to move through host materials, which can reduce storage capacity and shorten battery life.
To address this challenge, the UCLA team investigated a common layered material, vanadium oxide, known for its ability to store sodium ions between its layers. During charging and discharging, the large sodium ions cause the layers to repeatedly expand and contract, which ultimately damages the structure and diminishes performance.
The researchers developed a solution by inserting electrically conductive organic molecules—called aniline trimers—between the layers of vanadium oxide. These molecules act as spacers, increasing the distance between layers, stabilizing the structure and creating more accessible pathways for sodium-ion movement. The result was faster charge–discharge kinetics, higher reversible capacity and significantly improved cycling stability.
By turning sodium’s primary limitation—its larger ionic radius—into an advantage through rational materials engineering, the study offers a pathway toward more sustainable and scalable battery technologies.
The study was authored by Zhiyin Yang, Cheng-Wei Lin, Sophia Uemura, Mackenzie Anderson, Yuto Katsuyama, Maher F. El-Kady*, Yuzhang Li and Richard B. Kaner*.
For more information, contact Dr. Maher El-Kady, melkady2040@ucla.edu.
