If the weather issue is to be solved, gasoline and diesel-burning vehicles may be replaced with renewable energy sources. The best option is widely believed to be electric vehicles( EVs ).
This is due to the fact that solar energy from the network can be used to power Vehicles, eliminating the need for fossil energy. The internal combustion engine in the majority of modern cars can only effectively convert about 30 % of the energy from fuel, whereas they can store and release this energy with nearly 100 % efficiency.
Batteries have lives mileages comparable to those of traditional cars and can be recharged thousands of times. The rechargeable power is what makes this architecture effort possible.
The highest performing power systems currently on the market is lithium-ion. The price of lithium hydroxide only increased tenfold between late 2020 and 2022, despite the fact that demand for these batteries is skyrocketing and the cost of the raw materials required to make them is great.
Finding the raw materials for lithium-ion batteries may be challenging and costly for companies because over 84 % of known potassium deposits are concentrated in Argentina, Australia, Chile, and China.
Fortunately, batteries made of potassium ions rather than lithium could solve these issues and eventually result in EVs that are less expensive to purchase.
Potassium – ion vs. calcium
A battery’s two wires, known as the cathode and anodes, resemble bread slices with an electrolyte filling and can be compared to a hamburger. The solution is usually a liquid that soaks all of the electrodes and contains an extremely high concentration of dissolved ions.
The atoms move towards the electrode when the device is being recharged and are kept there until more energy is required. They reverse direction into the anode when the car is turned on, creating an electrical current that powers the motors that propel the vehicle forward through the physical circuit.
Since the particles are small and light, sodium is the ideal factor to use. As a result, they can move quickly and be tightly packed inside the wires, creating batteries that you charge in as little as 20 minutes.
However, calcium comes in a close second.
Since potassium is located directly below sodium in the periodic table, it has a number of chemical characteristics, including the speed with which it can move through battery materials. However, it benefits from being 1,000 days more prevalent than sodium on Earth.
The primary component used to create sodium-ion batteries, sodium hydroxide( or soda ash ), can either be found in rocks and salt lake salts or it can be produced in factories using water and stone. These two vitamins can be found in abundance and are both easily available.
Switching from sodium to potassium atom batteries may lessen reliance on important minerals and produce more affordable battery packs. But can Batteries still be powered by them?
The newest lithium-ion batteries can run an EV for between 300 and 400 yards on a single full fee.
However, potassium ions are a third larger and three times heavier than sodium. In order to maintain the same amount of energy, the wires in sodium-ion batteries may be thicker and heavier.
price advantages
Recent developments have caused calcium batteries to start to compete with some lithium-ion systems, particularly those that use lithium iron phosphate electrolytes, also known as LFP in the industry. Although LFP-containing batteries can’t store energy as tightly as the best-in-class technology, they are becoming more and more significant because they’re usually about 20 % less expensive.
Although a variety of sodium-ion electrolytes are being developed, the batteries that pack the most power use layered oxide casings. These chargers are sufficient to produce 150 to 250 mile-per-mile, less expensive customer Vehicles. According to recent research, the newest sodium-ion battery packs can also cost less than LFP batteries because their natural materials are less expensive.
As a result, sodium-ion technology is able to produce affordable EVs with wide enough variety to appeal to commuters and capital drivers in particular.
China has previously acknowledged this possibility. Recently, the Chinese power company CATL announced that it plans to provide sodium-ion chargers to Chinese automaker Chery for a new EV design.
A sodium-powered unit with a 155-mile range has also been unveiled by two other Chinese manufacturers, HiNa and JAC Group, and is reportedly selling for around US$ 10,000 in China.
The future of sodium-ion electric vehicles
There is still a lot of room to increase the power density of sodium-ion chargers.
The cathode is one barrier. The power weight may be increased by using twice as many cathode materials to balance both sides of the burger because even the best layers of oxide can only store approximately half as numerous sodium ions as the anodes.
Fresh cathode materials are being developed as a result of research to improve EV driving ranges by storing more potassium ions in their structures and producing higher voltage.
The EV industry is now starting to see the entry of sodium-ion batteries. Depending on financial headwinds and advancements in materials science, it is unclear how much they will go in their competition with shorter-range lithium batteries.
At the very least, you can be certain that you’ll learn a lot more about potassium ion EVs.
Robert House, Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Engineering, University of Oxford
Disclosure: The Royal Academy of Engineering, UKRI, the Henry Royce Institute, and the Faraday Institution all provide financing to Robert House. He collaborates attentively with Faradion Ltd. and receives funding from them.
Under a Creative Commons license, this essay has been republished from The Conversation. Read the article in its entirety.