Two-dimensional polymer that could revolutionise energy storage

Polymers, such as plastic and synthetic textiles, are very useful technological commodities that have revolutionised daily life and industries. A research team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has successfully pushed the frontier of polymer technology further by creating novel two-dimensional (2D) graphene-like polymer sheets.

The novel polymer sheets synthesised by the NUS team are unique because of their good electrical conductivities and highly regular, sub-nanometer sized pores, which can be used to store sodium ions efficiently and safely in sodium ion batteries. Sodium ion batteries are a type of rechargeable metal-ion battery that uses sodium ions as charge carriers.

As there is an abundance of sodium, sodium ion batteries are cheaper to produce than lithium ion batteries. However, the disadvantage is that they do not last long. The 2D polymer developed by researchers can be mass produced at low cost for use as the electrode for sodium ion batteries, enabling such batteries to perform at high capacity for thousands of charge cycles.

Read more at Science Daily

Image Credit: National University of Singapore

-jk-