Toward Emerging Sodium-Based Energy Storage Technologies: From Performance to Sustainability

Abstract

Abstract: As one of the potential alternatives to current lithium‐ion batteries, sodium‐based energy storage technologies including sodium batteries and capacitors are widely attracting increasing attention from both industry and academia. However, the performance and sustainability of current sodium‐based energy storage devices mostly rely on various critical materials and traditional energy‐consuming fabrication processes. Meanwhile, the detailed working mechanisms of some sodium‐based energy storage technologies are still under debate. Hence, how to realize low‐cost, sustainable, and high‐performance sodium‐based energy storage technologies remains challenging from the perspective of theoretical studies, material diversification, and device optimization. In this review, the development state of sodium‐based energy storage technologies from research background to principles is comprehensively discussed, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of state‐of‐the‐art sodium‐based energy storage devices are systematically analyzed, thus providing critical insight into the challenges and opportunities for emerging sodium‐based energy storage technologies to achieve not only improved performance, but also enhanced sustainability.