Shaping the Future of Sodium-Ion Batteries: From Accelerated Solid-State Electrolyte Discovery to Hard Carbon Design

Webinar

Sodium-ion batteries are emerging as a promising complement to lithium-ion technology, supported by the advantages of earth abundance, cost-effectiveness, and suitability for stationary and large-scale applications. Realizing this potential requires both the accelerated discovery of new functional materials and the deeper understanding of existing candidates tailored for sodium-ion chemistry. 

The first part of this session will focus on the accelerated discovery of sodium solid-state electrolytes. A closed-loop platform that integrates computational modeling, machine-learning determination of interatomic potentials, automated high-temperature synthesis, and rapid ionic conductivity measurements will be presented. This approach enables efficient exploration of compositional design spaces and rapid validation of promising candidates, significantly reducing the timescales traditionally associated with solid electrolyte development. The second part will examine the role of hard carbon as the leading anode material for sodium-ion batteries. Emphasis will be placed on how the physicochemical properties of hard carbon, determined by the nature of its bio-derived precursors, influence electrochemical performance. We will also review the impact of electrolyte composition on the sodiation and de-sodiation processes. 

Together, these perspectives demonstrate how accelerated discovery platforms and targeted material design can jointly advance sodium-ion batteries toward practical, scalable, and sustainable deployment.

Key Learnings:

• Sodium-ion batteries are emerging as a complementary technology to lithium-ion systems, offering advantages of earth abundance, low cost, and wide resource distribution.
• A closed-loop platform combining advanced modeling, machine learning, and automated synthesis can accelerate discovery, for example new sodium solid electrolytes.
• Hard carbon is a leading anode material whose performance is linked to its bio-derived properties, which can be tuned to improve performance.