FSU’s Yan Zeng is part of a nationwide team working to develop a new class of sodium-ion batteries for use in electric vehicles instead of costly and environmentally harmful lithium-ion batteries. Zeng is focusing on developing more efficient cathodes, a battery component that determines how much energy can be stored in a battery and how much energy it supplies to a car.

“There are no sodium-ion battery-powered electric vehicles in America yet — this is the country’s first big push toward environmentally friendly, affordable electric vehicles.” Current sodium-ion batteries provide lower energy than lithium-ion batteries of the same size. Zeng’s group will create new element and structure combinations to pack as much sodium in the cathode structure as possible, allowing the new sodium-ion batteries to be more powerful than lithium-ion.

• Yan Zeng