Chennai based Ramcharan Company granted a patent for its Solid State Battery using Sodium as a key material

Researchers have been investigating numerous metals to find alternatives to lithium-ion batteries. These elements include sodium, potassium, aluminium, zinc, and calcium. Though several of these metals showed potential, Ram Charan – Entity 1 focussed on sodium. One of the favourable characteristics of sodium is its abundancy in earth’s crust. However, the problems with sodium-ion batteries are low gravimetric energy density, highly reactive sodium metal anode, highly inflammable organic electrolytes, etc. Another major issue is that the liquid electrolyte can rapidly corrode the other elements in a sodium battery. (Ref: Mordor Intelligence). This bottle neck can be mitigated by employing solid-state electrolyte with high Na⁺ ion conductivity at room temperature and stable upto 600⁰C via utilization of earth abundant Sodium Silicate. 

The Proof of Concept on Solid State Sodium Silicate Batteries has been developed and tested by Chennai based Ramcharan Company in its R&D, since 2021.

Their in-house R&D team developed recyclable solid state sodium battery, employing naturally abundant sodium silicate as CAM (cathode active material) and Na-enriched phyllosilicates (Ram Charan’s specialty Compound) as solid electrolyte.

It possesses a power of 1.73 kW/kg and solid electrolyte ionic conductivity of 1.4mS/cm, i.e. 1.4 milli-Siemens per centimetre at Room Temperature. Ref – Patent grant number – 488659 (202241033884). [patent granted status updated on 19 Jan 2024]

“The demonstration of Na batteries in solid state by the Indian industry at PoC level is anticipated to be scaled up and tested in real-time applications by the end of 2024. Considering the patent was filed in June 2023, after 19 months of research & development, and considering it is the first Sodium Solid State Battery from India, it puts the country in the world map of battery technology development and is on the path to commercialization. This can create significant value additions in the EV, consumer electronics, low power electronics, stationary storage and space applications“, said Ramcharan’s founder Kaushik Palicha.

The product is fully recyclable with no toxic residue, making this perhaps the most significant breakthrough when end product responsibility comes into play, added a company statement.

Commenting on this development, Prof M V Sangaranarayanan – Department of Chemistry at IIT Madras, said, “On account of the abundant availability of sodium resources and environment-friendly nature, solid-state batteries based on sodium have emerged as an attractive alternative in the field of electrochemical energy storage devices. The key strategy in the development of all solid-state sodium batteries (SSSBs) is the appropriate choice of electrolytes. While the hitherto-envisaged electrolytes were expensive and cumbersome to synthesize in large scale, Ram Charan – Entity 1 has now come up with an indigenously prepared sodium silicate electrolyte with optimum conductivity and stability for enhancing the performance of SSSBs. This pain-staking research work of several years emphasizes that the sodium-silicate based electrolytes in SSSBs can indeed be made commercially in an affordable manner and supports the ‘Make in India for all’ mission of GoI.”

Also Read: The allure of Solid State Batteries