The team used sodium-sulfur, a type of molten salt that can be extracted from seawater, to create the battery, making it a more cost-effective alternative to lithium-ion batteries.Using a simple pyrolysis process and carbon-based electrodes to improve the reactivity of sulfur and the reversibility of reactions between sulfur and sodium, the researchers’ battery has shaken off its formerly sluggish reputation, exhibiting super-high capacity and ultra-long life at room temperature.This is a significant breakthrough for renewable energy development which, although it reduces costs in the long term, has had several financial barriers to entry,” said lead researcher Dr. Zhao.“Storage solutions that are manufactured using plentiful resources like sodium – which can be processed from seawater – also have the potential to guarantee greater energy security more broadly and allow more countries to join the shift towards decarbonization.”The lab-scale batteries (cion batteries) have been successfully fabricated and tested in the University of Sydney’s chemical engineering facility.Reference: “Atomically Dispersed Dual-Site Cathode with a Record High Sulfur Mass Loading for High-Performance Room-Temperature Sodium–Sulfur Batteries” by Bin-Wei Zhang, Liuyue Cao, Cheng Tang, Chunhui Tan, Ningyan Cheng, Wei-Hong Lai, Yun-Xiao Wang, Zhen-Xiang Cheng, Juncai Dong, Yuan Kong, Shi-Xue Dou and Shenlong Zhao, 29 October 2022, Advanced Materials."