Sodium Ion Batteries

Daniel Di Francesco, is an Intellectual Property Manager at PatWorld. He is an expert in undertaking patent searches including for Freedom to Operate, Patentability and Invalidity, covering all types of subject matter with specialism in the chemical field. 



Introduction 

Batteries are a key component in our daily lives; from cars to remote controls, it is hard to stray far from technology utilising a battery for its power source.  

For many years the standard in this field has been the lithium-ion battery, however there are now a variety of alternatives aiming to overthrow lithium’s dominance, with sodium-ion batteries seen as a leading contender. 

Background 

Sodium-ion batteries were developed almost alongside its lithium-ion counterpart in the 1970’s; both operating under the same principles of reversible reduction of their respective metal ions to store and release energy. As Lithium demonstrated better commercial promise, the interest in development of sodium-ion batteries subsided. 

However, since the early 2010’s sodium-ion batteries have received renewed interest due to increasing costs associated with lithium-ion battery raw materials and their high environmental impact. 

This article will explore the patent landscape surrounding sodium-ion batteries using PatWorld (a global patent search database). 

Method 

A dataset was generated by searching keywords identifying sodium-ion batteries (including synonyms such as NIB, SIB, cells and accumulators), as well as utilising sodium keywords within the H01M10/054 - Accumulators with insertion or intercalation of metals other than lithium, e.g. with magnesium or aluminium classification. 

Patents/applications were analysed using PatWorld software to generate the charts and graphs used in the report. 

Filing Trends 

Although initially developed in the 1970’s, the use of sodium-ion batteries could be viewed as an emerging field, with nominal filings being seen prior to 2006. The field witnesses sustained, significant growth in the years following 2012 (Figure.1), although the number of patent families indicates that this field is still in its infancy, especially when compared to lithium-ion batteries (N.B. priority filings from 2021 and 2022 were not included as these figures may be inaccurate due to applications yet to be published claiming priority in these years).