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February 24th, 2016 
Awake Goy The quest for a way to create a rechargeable battery from sodium rather than lithium took a somewhat unexpected turn last month when scientists from the University of Maryland and the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology from Beijing discovered that a baked oak leaf pumped full of sodium made a successful negative terminal for a proof-of-concept battery.
As anyone who ever made a battery from a lemon (or a potato) would remember, making a battery out of organic matter is certainly possible and could play its part in developing a workable sodium-based battery.
Sodium theoretically should hold more charge than lithium, but in practice it can’t handle as many charge-and-discharge cycles. One of the stumbling blocks has been finding a suitable anode material that is compatible with sodium. Graphite, which is used in Li-ion batteries, is not suitable since sodium ions have a much larger ionic size than lithium. Graphene is a possibility, but is time consuming and expensive to produce.
Earlier experiments have included other biomass sources, such as peat moss, banana peels, and melon skin, but these require additional processing and coating.
“The natural shape of a leaf already matches a battery’s needs: a low surface area, which decreases defects; a lot of small structures packed closely together, which maximizes space; and internal structures of the right size and shape to be used with sodium electrolyte,” said Fei Shen, a visiting student working on the project.
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