A sodium–sulfur (NaS) battery is a type of molten-salt battery that uses liquid sodium and liquid sulfur electrodes. This type of battery has a similar energy density to lithium-ion batteries, and is fabricated from inexpensive and low-toxicity materials.
Molten sulfur and molten sodium are used as the electrode materials for the sodium-sulfur batteries. This kind of battery operates at higher temperatures ranging from 300°C to 350°C. An internal machine is employed for heating purposes to provide the required active temperatures in the system. The electrodes are separated by a ceramic layer.
Sodium sulfur batteries have gained popularity because of the wide availability of sodium and its stable operation in all temperature levels. They act as a reliable element of storage technology due to their high value of specific energy density and are comparatively cheaper than the other storage devices.
The sodium–sulfur battery uses sulfur combined with sodium to reversibly charge and discharge, using sodium ions layered in aluminum oxide within the battery's core. The battery shows potential to store lots of energy in small space.
Utility-scale sodium–sulfur batteries are manufactured by only one company, NGK Insulators Limited (Nagoya, Japan), which currently has an annual production capacity of 90 MW . The sodium sulfur battery is a high-temperature battery. It operates at 300°C and utilizes a solid electrolyte, making it unique among the common secondary cells.
Lifetime is claimed to be 15 year or 4500 cycles and the efficiency is around 85%. Sodium sulfur batteries have one of the fastest response times, with a startup speed of 1 ms. The sodium sulfur battery has a high energy density and long cycle life. There are programmes underway to develop lower temperature sodium sulfur batteries.
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A sodium–sulfur (NaS) battery is a type of molten-salt battery that uses liquid sodium and liquid sulfur electrodes. This type of battery has a similar energy density to lithium-ion batteries, and is fabricated from inexpensive and low-toxicity materials. Due to the high operating temperature required (usually between 300 and 350 °C), as well as the highly reactive nature of sodium and