The sodium–sulfur battery (NaS battery), along with the related lithium–sulfur battery employs cheap and abundant electrode materials. Research has investigated metal combinations with operating temperatures at 200 ☌ (390 ☏) and room temperature. This means that sodium-based batteries operate at temperatures between 245 and 350 ☌ (470 and 660 ☏). The melting point of sodium is 98 ☌ (208 ☏). In order to construct practical batteries, the sodium must be in liquid form. Sodium is attractive because of its high reduction potential of −2.71 volts, low weight, relative abundance, and low cost. Since the mid-1960s much development work has been undertaken on rechargeable batteries using sodium (Na) for the negative electrodes. The high price of gallium chloride was expected to keep the design from commercial use.

Liquid sodium metal crosses a ceramic separator, reaching a mixture of liquid sodium iodide and gallium chloride, termed a 'catholyte'. Ī 2021 study reported stable operation of a cell operating at 230 ☏ (110 ☌) over 400 cycles. The same technology was studied by Argonne National Laboratories and other researchers in the 1980s for use in electric vehicles. They were used for ordnance applications (e.g., proximity fuzes) since WWII and later in nuclear weapons. When the technology reached the United States in 1946, it was immediately applied to replacing the troublesome liquid-based systems that had previously been used to power artillery proximity fuzes. This information was subsequently passed on to the United States Ordnance Development Division of the National Bureau of Standards. His work was reported in 'The Theory and Practice of Thermal Cells'. Afterwards, Erb was interrogated by British intelligence. None of these batteries entered field use during the war. Erb developed batteries for military applications, including the V-1 flying bomb and the V-2 rocket, and artillery fuzing systems. Thermal batteries originated during World War II when German scientist Georg Otto Erb developed the first practical cells using a salt mixture as an electrolyte. Rechargeable liquid-metal batteries are used for industrial power backup, special electric vehicles and for grid energy storage, to balance out intermittent renewable power sources such as solar panels and wind turbines.

Traditional non-rechargeable thermal batteries can be stored in their solid state at room temperature for long periods of time before being activated by heating.

Molten-salt batteries are a class of battery that uses molten salts as an electrolyte and offers both a high energy density and a high power density. ( May 2015)įZSoNick 48TL200: sodium–nickel battery with welding-sealed cells and heat insulation Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points.

Liquid metal battery