A new discovery makes a Sodium Sulfur battery more of a reality

 A new sodium sulphur battery created by engineers at the University of Texas in Austin have managed to solve one of the major problems in producing a commercially viable alternative to the lithium ion battery. The sodium sulphur battery is an excellent idea since both sodium and sulphur are very abundant and environmentally fairly harmless. One of the problems with lithium and sodium batteries is the formation of crystals called dendrites and this causes the battery to rapidly decrease to degrade and maybe even catch fire or explode. The researchers at the University of Texas have been using a new experimental electrolyte which solves the dendrite problems and enables the battery to last well over 300 charge and discharge cycles at present. With the cost of lithium batteries rocketing and the need for cobalt which is environmentally harmful, these new batteries look like they could be the answer for electric vehicles and a storage of renewable resources such as wind and solar power.



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