Liangbing Hu, Teng Li, and other researchers decided to use wood as the base for a sodium-ion battery. Wood is a flexible material, which helps the batteries better absorb with the stress as ions flow through the battery, unlike non-flexible substrates that are used in most of today’s batteries.
By using the wood, the scientists created an experimental battery and used sodium instead of lithium to make the battery more environmentally friendly. The experiment resulted in a battery that worked through 400 charge-discharge cycles, making it one of the longest-lasting sodium-ion batteries.
The scientists also suggest that the battery would be best used in large-scale energy storage applications, such as solar energy operations.