A battery ReNaissance
钠电池新生
Firms are exploring sodium batteries as an alternative to lithium
一些公司正在探索用钠电池替代锂电池
- sodium 钠（Na）
Unlike lithium, sodium is cheap and abundant
与锂不同，钠便宜又丰富
THEY POWER tiny phones and two-tonne electric cars. They form the guts of a growing number of grid-storage systems that smooth the flow of electricity from wind and solar power stations. Without them, the electrification needed to avoid the worst effects of global warming would be unimaginable. And in 2019 they earned three of their pioneers a Nobel prize.
它们驱动小巧的手机和两吨重的电动汽车。它们成为越来越多的电网蓄电系统的核心，平抑风能和太阳能发电站的输出波动。没有它们，很难想象能够实现电气化，从而避免全球变暖带来的最坏影响。2019年，三位研发它们的先驱获得了诺贝尔奖。
- guts 核心；实质；要点
But lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries have downsides. Lithium is scarce, for one. And the best Li-ion batteries, those with layered-oxide cathodes, also require cobalt and nickel. These metals are scarce, too—and cobalt is also problematic because a lot of it is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where working conditions leave much to be desired. A second sort of Li-ion battery, a so-called polyanionic design that uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP), does not need nickel or cobalt. But such batteries cannot store as much energy per kilogram as layered-oxide ones.
但是锂离子电池也有缺点。首先是锂的稀缺性。性能最好的锂离子电池使用层状氧化物阴极，还需要钴和镍。这两种金属也很稀缺——并且钴具有争议性，因为很多钴矿都在刚果（金），那里的工作条件亟待改善。第二种锂离子电池即所谓的聚阴离子型使用磷酸铁锂（LFP），不需要镍或钴。但是这种电池的能量密度比不上层状氧化物的电池。
- downside 缺点；不利方面
- scarce 缺乏的；不足的；稀少的
- cobalt 钴（Co）
- nickel 镍（Ni）
- phosphate 磷酸盐；含磷化合物；磷肥
