Sugar Batteries Could Offer 20 Percent More Capacity than Lithium Ion

As it turns out, heat-blasted sugar can convert to carbon powder, which can add storage capacity to a sodium-ion battery. Lithium can be found in several locations around the world (including Argentina and China), but major deposits are few. Sodium, on the other hand, is easy to come by and inexpensive. So, conceivably, sodium-sucrose batteries may not only have longer battery life, but be less expensive, as well.

Sodium-sucrose batteries are still a long way off from hitting the market. The team that made the discovery predicts at least five years before the real sodium-sucrose batteries find consumers – and that’s if a major hurdle is overcome: as it stands now, these batteries would likely have fewer charge cycles than lithium-ion batteries.