---
title: "Chemists discover key reaction mechanism behind the highly touted sodium-oxygen battery"
description: "Chemists have discovered the key reaction that takes place in sodium-air batteries that could pave the way for development of the so-called holy grail of electrochemical energy storage."
date: "2015-05-28"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Mark Parker"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/parkerm"
url: "https://futurism.com/chemists-discover-key-reaction-mechanism-behind-the-highly-touted-sodium-oxygen-battery"
categories:
  - "Energy"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "energy"
---

# Chemists discover key reaction mechanism behind the highly touted sodium-oxygen battery

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- Sodium-oxygen batteries are considered by many to be a particularly promising metal-oxygen battery combination. Although less energy dense than lithium-oxygen cells, they can be recharged with more than 93 per cent efficiency and are cheap enough for large-scale electrical grid storage.
- The key lies in Nazar's group discovery of the so-called proton phase transfer catalyst. By isolating its role in the battery's discharge and recharge reactions, Nazar and colleagues were not only able to boost the battery's capacity, they achieved a near-perfect recharge of the cell. When the researchers eliminated the catalyst from the system, they found the battery no longer worked.
- Unlike the traditional solid-state battery design, a metal-oxygen battery uses a gas cathode that takes oxygen and combines it with a metal such as sodium or lithium to form a metal oxide, storing electrons in the process. Applying an electric current reverses the reaction and reverts the metal to its original form.