@@JulianIletti'm curious about sodium cells because all info out there is quite opposite/ incoherent , some say they are safer, some that they are a bomb
@@JulianIlett by the way tested my 27600 , charged to 4.1 until current was 0.17A, then discharged to 2.1V ( a bit high , i had trouble setting active load lower ) measured 3Ah ( 3.5Ah capacity printed on the cell ), will redo to something like 1.8V, ( the seller says 1.5V as cutoff voltage )
I've got a hold of the datasheet for these batteries from the seller, recommended charge profile is as follows; Constant current of 0.5C until 4.1V, constant voltage until 0.05C. Cycle life test is done with the same charge profile, except for a lower cutoff voltage of 4.0V. 80% or better capacity after 3000 cycles. Max charge and discharge rates depend on temperature, most interesting for me is charging down to -10°C at 0.2C, and discharging down to -30°C (also at 0.2C aka 300mA) - with some reduced capacity.
The usable voltage range looks perfect for Pi Pico projects! (1.8-5.5V input range on VSYS) 2V looks like a reasonable "help my battery is empty" voltage, while still running for a while after that :)
I may be a nerd but this is incredibly exciting for me! I´ve been looking forward to sodium based batteries for a few years now and you provide the first insights in private persons having access to them! Been subscribed for a few years now and you don´t disappoint in bringing up up and coming electrical technologies available for the consumer market. Thank you Julian!
Hi Julian, it looks to me that you actually undercharged the cell with this algorithm and that is why you haven't registered the full capacity. The reason I think that is that your CV phase of charging was terminated abruptly after a too short time. If this cell's behaviour is similar to a Lithium one then once you reached the maximum voltage (in this case 4.1V) the charging should continue (in CV mode) until the charging current drops to about 0.01C. Your charging stopped at about 0.8C, way too early. And there is quite a bit of extra capacity that can be added at that phase. Am I barking at the wrong tree?
I would say it is a very accurate point, There is no battery that can magically be 100% charged just the moment it´s voltage reach the maximum point, it needs time to "soak" the charge completely, that is why you have chargers with Constant current/Constant Voltage characteristics, it is also the same when you discharge a cell that the slower you discharge the more energy you can harvest from a single charge until a point where the chemical reaction is matching the energy output. For maximum energy you simply can´t go faster than a chemical reaction can occur in a cell. it is the reason many batteries have two different capacity ratings depending on a specific C Rate over time.
I think part of the problem is the voltage sense. There should be two wire per side of the battery, one to handle current, and the other to sense cell voltage. The board he uses seems to have this support.
Came here to say this... The charging was cut-off almost immediately after the cell reached 4.1v, while there was still 800ma of current going into the battery. From the different charging curves i've viewed online, the additional increase in capacity during the CV phase is shown to be in the range of 10-20%.
@@ikocheratcr The 4 wire connection only accounts for voltage drop in the charge cables. It's not possible to measure the cell voltage independently to the input voltage as the voltage sense connection is still common with the charge connection. The only way know the cell voltage is to calculate it using the IR of the cell and the current input rate.
Great Video! Just what i wanted to see :) I saw them on aliexpress, too, but i thought they are just LFP-Cells labeled as sodium ion. But thanks to your video we now know, that they seem to be real sodium Ion cells! Very nice!
Glad you liked it. The discharger can hold several different discharge curves, so I may make a follow up video showing the different shapes of lithium NMC, LifePO4 and Sodium Ion.
@@JulianIlett I've never heard of those style of batteries, wonder how they will hold up in negative temperature range, wonder if they die as fast as li ion do, @ -37 degree on li-ion style, only last about 10 minutes in the real world test, lorex wireless security camera system lol
@@JulianIlettthat sounds like an awesome idea. I'd also love to see some other cell chemistries as well. NiCd* NiMH NiFe* Lead acid * if you can find them
@@JulianIlett- I'm wondering if the discharge curve may look different under different loads values (more or less linear?). Also, what do you think about using a "Joule Thief" circuit to milk it down below 1V? Not sure if you made a Super-Capacitor discharge video, but would be interested in seeing one.
Thanks for the test. I wasn't aware that these Na+Ion cells are already available on consumer level, but 5,70 Eur for one 1,5 Ah Na+Cell is quite expensive, given the specs with low capacity and wide voltage range. Thats definetly a PRO for the LiFePO chemistry that the voltage is very stable at 3.2V instead of 4.1 ... 1.5. You will always need a converter to adapt for voltage change for a specific application ...
The price is cheaper if you buy per 20 instead of one, the the price drops to $2.76 each (1,5 Ah) or $4.93 (3,5 Ah) Or the really large ones when you buy 2 of them are $33 each (18Ah)
Pretty cool to see some actual testing with one of these cells! For anyone interested, I cam across, and use a rather useful little TI boost converter IC with an input voltage range of 0.5V-5.5v which could work nice with how low the voltage gets on these sodium ion batteries. It's the TPS61022. Output voltage of 2.2-5.5V, so it's really useful for USB stuff, or, what I use it for, ws2812b LED strip projects. :)
I actually like the way that graph works, it is good to see a 15 second real time data, otherwise we wouldn't be able to see any small fluctuations if they were to happen. Also, it is easier from a coding perspective, get 15 seconds of real time data, average it, then add it to the accumulated data.
@@ericklein5097 Batteries dont have a cutoff current as they can basically charge till they get discharged. For the charger/discharger idk its a cheap thingy probably too variable for it to be documented
Very nice test, i was waiting a long time for a review like this so thank you. For a 1C discharge this is a good result normally lithium batteries are testes with 0,2C discharge rate or lower for capacity tests. as we can see there ist not really a benefit discharge this SI cells below 2 volts. A test under freezing temperatures would be really interesting😅
The reviews are in: "Single handedly the most exciting battery discharge testing video since....well the last one Julian did" (In earnest: highly informative, thanks)
Really a great demonstration. Thanks so much for sharing. Looks promising so far, and I'm sure there are many smart folks and lots of industrial capital working on improving power density as we speak.
Nice work ! I am very interested in trying these cells in a mobile radio app. Nice to see the work you have done. These cells are super safe given the chemistry.
you have to take in account also lower voltage compare to NMC , still also because it will become cheaper it looks good, what i'm wondering about is safety
What would happen if you charged the sodium battery to 4.3 volts? Would it shorted the number of charging cycles and if so by how much. I have a diy power bank that usually works with 2 18650 lithium batteries in parallel [which means that the power bank cuts off at 4.2 volts]. The sodium ion battery are supposed to be charged up to 4 volts.
is there any BMS that might be able to manage these yet? i'm looking at the listings for some of these and they look compelling for building a pack out of, since i want something that can be charged below 0°C but i'm not sure if any currently available BMS can be easily configured to properly work with these cells, preferably a smart BMS too so i can get some data via bluetooth
FWIW i have actually ordered the prismatic cells (200Ah) and they offered to ship me a BMS as well, i assume it's just a smart BMS preconfigured for the specific cells but i will give it a shot anyway.
That wide voltage range would make it pretty hard to use without a switch mode power supply. They are also more expensive than LiFePO4 batteries, which can be used as a replacement for lead acid batteries in many applications.
It seems that the charge is not completed. The end conduis not set properly. In CC/CV you usually wait until the current is under 10% of the initial one. Where it was still at 90% when it stops and launch the discharge. That's probably why the voltage drops pretty fast initially. It may come from how you set the charger to 4.2V. It should be 4.1. At the end of the charge the current is lower so the drop in the wires is not 0.1V
True, the charger didn't do a full CC/CV charge. When I set the charger PSU to 4.1V the charge cycle never completed, but there's probably a sweet-spot voltage that would emulate a full CC/CV charge.
Wonderful! I was very curious about how to charge-discharge these new cells. So you get about 90% of the specified capacity from going to 4V down to 2V while discharging at 1C. If you stretch the CV time till the current drops to 0A and stay there for another 10 minutes, I bet you can actually reach the specified 1.5Ah, provided of course that you let the voltage drops to 0V upon discharge. I read somewhere that NA-Ion allows you to go that low without degrading permanently the internal resistance or chemistry of the cell.
A LOT more interesting than watching paint dry. The constant voltage drop during discharge will help in metering the state of charge. But it looks like almost all applications will want some sort of buck / boost circuit to cope with that mahoosive >2:1 charged to discharged voltage.
That was interesting. I had not realized those are available already. Unfortunately capacity of 1.5Ah is still far behind of 3 to 3.5Ah that lithiums have nowadays easily.
And the watt-hours are even worse as the nominal voltage is lower (another example of why we should stop using amp-hours). Volumetric density is much lower. This won't matter much in some applications, but definitely does with electric vehicles.
@@MiniLuv-1984sodium and lithium as bare metals burn in a similar fashion. The main difference is price as the regular table salt is half sodium. Hard to say if sodium batteries are safer or not.
@@yeahbucka3005 Its not the metal that is the problem, it is the electrolyte from what I understand. Perhaps the Na cells use the same kind of electrolyte as Li cells and so these cells are just as capable of self sustained burning that does not require atmospheric oxygen like, for example a petrol fire does.
The voltage step in charge to discharge might in part be caused by the wire and connector resistance between the measurement point on the charting device, and the battery. 60 milliohm series + internal resistance would cause this, and those crocodile clips might have something to do with it.
@@jimstand off grid garage, and the manufacturers. All batteries have to absorb at the top. That’s the entire point to CV mode. It keeps the voltage constant and the battery absorbs the last remaining capacity. If you just shut it down when it hits voltage or shortly there after you’ll get 80%ish of the actual capacity of the cell. This is also why the 1st 80% takes less time than he last 20%. The pressure difference (voltage) in the first 80% is huge and it’s virtually nothing in the last 20% because you can’t force the electrons in anymore it has to equalize with the given pressure.
very interesting, I had not seen them! For my big RC models, their current is limiting, but my smaller ones would be ok. Voltage is rather variable, but I am already using BECs in many of my models, so maybe feasible. Definitely something to keep in mind, thanks Julian for the unbiased test!
@@soundspark I am sure! But maybe I don't want to wait that long. :D As they are already safer and more robust than Lithium cells, I am definitely interested.
@@YensR Obviously they are 18650 cells at the moment, so they are very heavy compared to lithium polymer pouch cells, hopefully someone releases a pouch version.
This is awesome! Now for tests of self-discharge/shelf life, and cycle life. Are sodium-ion batteries usable for long term data logging? Inquiring minds want to know.
I love battery technologies and actually have a set of 3 SIBs. Compared with LiIon I was disappointed. Capacity rapidly degrades by the 40th Cycle to almost 1/2 the capacity of the battery. I still think they have a long way to go to reach the capacity cycles of of LiFePO4 which can reach cycles in their 1000's and still remain at over 65% capacity of their original capacity.
@@RobinRastle The set of 3 that I tried fell to 56% capacity by 40 cycles. Could be a bad chinese batch or a PRC exagerrated claim. They will never replace Lithium... at least in the short term future. It might be 3000 cycles but how deep are those cycles? That is the question. Where is the discharge curve on the datasheet? Depth of discharge is the key here not discharging to SOC of 70%.
@@jghall00 I did not buy more of them because i found it futile. If they were that efficient and notably cheaper, the car manufacturers will swoop up on them to bring the prices down of electric cars. I have also read about them in blogs and the consensus is that it's not excluded for future use, however more work and research needs to be done for these batteries to take over lithium.
I am curious to see how you're going to handle the overdischarge protection, since most Li-ion cell protection chips use a 2.5V cut-off. I'm also interested to see your final setup for the pack. But I'm sure you will reveal all in due course.
Good stuff Julian BCDC just destroys thing . Shame that Atorch battery tester doesnt seem to be available, but the DLP 24 seems to have build and s/w issues and doesnt do graphs just digits
cool vid i had seen these on aliexpress aswell, however with it being aliexpress do we know for sure these are sodium-ion and not just mislabeld to drive sales (e.g. some 3v lipo wich if im not mistaken would have similar discharge curves)
I am on my way to buy also for testing. New to the subject but the one I am interested in is a pack of 75 AH but the nominal voltage is 2,9v. Is this a big no no or normal?
Does it count the 1.5 amp capacity as all the way down to 0 volts? Sort of like losing storage capacity on a hard drive because you have to format it before you can use it.
Very cool I wonder how thesse cells can tolerate a overdischarge In case of lithium , if you leave at zero volts (forget a load connected to it), in a few days your battery is unusable capacity. Thanks for the vid, is the first on youtube discharging theese sodium-ion
How do you know for sure this is a Sodium ion and not a Lithium cell? Isn't the nominal voltage of Sodium between 2.3 to 2.5 volts? While a Nickle based Lithium cell is 3.7 to 4.2. So how are you getting those high voltages from a single Sodium cell?
@@JulianIlett Thanks for the info Julian. Do you have a video of them powering something? Especially one where a Lithium cell comparison can be made powering that same appliance? Would love to see one.
I don't really see this as an EV battery, but rather, home electrical energy storage. I do believe, it would indeed give the full 1.5 amp hour, if it was held at 4.1 volts until current tail. To get that close, (1.45 amp hour) is actually quite impressive. This cell can give LiFePO4 a bit of a contest. It's mean voltage seems to be right in between Lithium Iron Phosphate, and Lithium Nickel Cobalt Manganese. This chemistry would be much more efficient, if used in solar or wind, where it won't be asked to accept a charge at full maximum rated charge current, then discharged at maximum rated current. Electric vehicles tend to require all the current the battery can deliver, but solar storage charges it over several hours, and discharges it over many hours. Any idea what the cycle life of this cell is?
I wish I could buy a 48v 100ah battery for my solar system here in Egypt. I suspect it will take time for the price to drop. At any rate It will happen. Best regards from Egypt.
So if I replaced the 48V Li ion cells on my e-bike with these sodium cells, how many should I use? The Li pack is (I think) a 14s6p, but at a discharge voltage of 2V, these sodium cells will give me a minimum of 28v (currently 38V with Li) with a max of 56V (currently 57V) I wonder if I should be looking at a 16s (64C max) or even 18s (72V max) configuration? I guess all this depends on what the controller can handle. What a great development in battery tech! No more threat of a Guy Fawkes in the middle of the night! (I hope).
in this configuration, is like 27Amp peak curent maximum and 55 56volt charged the question is, the bike have a descharge protection ? with this battery you need 84 battery like 250€, you need modified bms? and you need all for pack assembly, after that, if you have a bike at 500W at 36v (discharged) you need 14Amp, with sodium battery you need 18Amp, the bike cotroler maximum curent need to controled, the maximum capacity if you full charge discharge is more 350Wh and 9Ah
@@nailuj45 Thanks for all the info. All correct re BMS for Na chemistry, but first right series voltage needs to be worked out, then maximum current, then kWh ratings etc. etc. First things first. What is the correct voltage range, how many series cells if one uses Na cells?
@@MiniLuv-1984 use the same battery S and P, thit is the best, or 16s8p but undercharged, more usable and more life for it, if you have money mak hybride battery withe 4.2v 4000F capacitor, its best for brake recharge, the interest of naion battery, on aliexpresse you have a 200Ah verssion, normaly no fire or explosion, and that is good for on-off gride storage or camping car use becose more safty, the best adventage of na ion is for electric car or other vehicle, no problem at -10°C a standar use of there celle are 4s6p with supercap for remplace lead acid starter bat the charge curve is not clear i dont know what is the mecanic carecteristic, is good for powerbank or on base powersupply but 84 of it with the unknow of it ? make a video for crash test for all and after if it positive, use it for a EV
Quite a few comments about LiFePO4 here and I have samples, chargers and protection circuits to try. But I don't find many explorations like this one - most examples are from building large batteries with prismatic cells. Anybody using the 18650 and 32700 sizes ?
What is the avg discharge voltage? Times the capacity is Wh. Sales and marketing scum love to lie, try discharging at 0.1C (150mA) and see if you get the rated capacity.
One thing I hope that the producer of the battery can make is a AAA and AA size sodium ion battery, because 3V is just perfect to fit a dummy cell for the 2 slot serial AA i.e. 2 * 1.5 V = 3V, if they can do these thing it can be a much better solution to NIMH battery for some application.
Great video! Tha capacity is normally measured @0.1C so 1.5Ah could be possible. The real question is: what are the Wh of LI-Ion, LiFePO4 and SodiumIon of 18650 cells in comparison ;-) And the costs of course! But do I need a balancer, when I build a 3S/4S/5S?
Really good work here Julian. Still, 1.46Ah I guess you could technically rounds up and say it's 1.5Ah but it's not 1500mAh All in there number of significant figures. :) I'd be interested to see how the curve looked after 1000 cycles. You don't want to run your nifty device there for a couple of thousand hours straight by any chance? I know it would be a pretty long video and even the nerds might get a bit bored of that one!! Still we need to know these things.
I also did a discharge test at 1 amp, and got just over 1.5Ah, and at 2 amps and got less of course. At higher currents the cell gets warmer and more energy is lost as heat. The load tester does have a CDCDC mode that does two discharges but that's it I'm afraid. Also thinking of a way to remotely whack a nail through a fully charged cell :)
@@JulianIlett The ones that where shown should be charged and discharged at 0.5 C for max capacity. Brand Hakadi. the materials are: iron+sodium for the cathode (in the form of Prussian white, or blue. depending on the original manufacturer) and a hard carbon+sodium anode
@@JulianIlett If you're willing to accept a moderate risk, you don't need to necessarily do it remotely, you just need to keep enough of your body far enough away and protect the important bits. GreatScott! showed what happens when you hit a nail through a Li-ion cell in his graphene super capacitor video, and it looked like he was just wearing standard work gloves (and possibly eye protection off camera ... in addition to normal clothing, of course). Find a way to hold the cell firmly in place and get a longer nail, and you can increase the safety factor by increasing the distance your hands have to be from the cell. A pair of welding gloves and a face shield might just be a good investment. Just make sure the Mrs isn't home when you try this.
Thanks for test. I still prefer LiPO4 but it is useful to know what can be done in the sodium world. That CDC rig has bad voltage scaling. It is not difficult to scale axes to "nice numbers" like 0V 0.5V ,1.0V 1,5V etc instead of 0V, 0.47V 0.95V, 1.42 etc
Now I think you need to add a dc to dc converter so the output voltage will be a bit more flat. Monitor the input dc voltage for a good setpoint to give you a safety factor (just at the knee) not to run out of power.
Neat. It will be interesting to see how the Na vs Li (Ion) batteries fair in the home battery storage market were volume weight is less important. Cars most likely Li ion
Substantially less power density with a 2V swing between charged and discharged state. Li-ion has about a 1.2V swing and average cells are well over 2Ah, i have some cells that are 3350Mah but most are 2600Mah Use extra cells to get a higher source voltage and then have a buck or the device has a buck regulator to maintain stable operation during a discharge cycle.
Really good video. If that's about the properties sodium ion batteries will have they'll have to be cheaper than LFP to be relevant in most applications. Both lower energy density, and very wide voltage range.
The cycle life time is something to query too. Lots of claims by manufacturers but I want to see how a given product performs once the public starts to use & abuse it.
Because of the voltage profile. LifePO4 are flat discharge over 3.3-3.4v. 100% of rated cap for LifePO4 measured from full charge 3.65v to 2.5v. Sodium starts higher ay 3.75v and has a constant slope down to 1.5v.
That's interesting. I wonder if it would be easy to implement a battery level meter for these cells. You can just measure the voltage and get a good idea of how much capacity you have left.
You didn't let it charge at 4.1 volts long enough. Set it at 4.15 for 10 minutes for that size cell. It won't harm it to sit at 4.15 for 3 hours either. You just need to let it charge longer.
Did I just hear that correctly? 1500 mAH? Like the capacity of a AA REchargeable NiMh Battery cell? 🤣 Cool that the voltage you get is in the 4v-2v range. But a NiMh Battery at that size would be close to 5000 mAH with the only downside (Or upside) of low (Stable discharge) cell voltage of ~1.2v during the discharge cycle at the rated nominal load for a NiMh 18650 style sized cell. Seems to me that these are great for being cheap. I just don't see them being THAT cheap compared to Lithium cells. Used one's particularly. And the claimed lifetime is probably about the same as most cellphone cells, without the capacity of course. I really wonder how well these will do overtime? I also think that these are really going to be in VERY large format batteries such as a good replacement for under the hood car lead acid batteries, where heat kills AGM type cells. Hence why Flooded Lead Acid cells have been my choice for under the hood duty in my cars. With Lead Acid units seemingly being up at the $200 range? Seems like sodium might be the logical next step if it can compete with the raw current a Lead Acid or AGM style battery can deliver. Heck, anything lasts longer for a deep cycle type cell the lead acid or AGM. Wonder what a 12v battery would really look like with these cells & its optimal configuration in a car battery. If these sodium cells can do well enough in below freezing temps like in a cold climate? And do great under HOT temps under a hood? I see this being the battery of choice for ICE cars going forward into the future if the hype lives up to the claims. Also? Seems to me like the 18650ish form factor is fine for lithium. Not so much with sodium due to capacity or watt hours per/ Kg. I see disposable E-cigs take the sodium route as well.
Nice and detailed explanation. Could you make a detailed review of the product from Bangood " DL24EW 150W Tuya WiFi Smart Power Electronic Load Tester" discussing all the features including all 9 modes of operation???
Cool i think you're first .. I would say the range here is 3.95-2.37v looking at the graph. I think it would be worth checking out the other cells that are available, i was going to grab the sob cell prismatics, they're a bigger ah. But probably better to test the chemistry in than small cells. Gen 1 is supposed to be 145wh/kg Can you concur the weight to power density?
I didn't even know they were commercially available yet.
These and prismatic cells..
i bought some 26700 ones still from HAKADI, have to test them , they arrived at 2.56V
I've just built a contraption that whacks a nail through cylindrical cells. That'll be fun to play with :)
@@JulianIletti'm curious about sodium cells
because all info out there is quite opposite/ incoherent , some say they are safer, some that they are a bomb
@@JulianIlett by the way tested my 27600 , charged to 4.1 until current was 0.17A, then discharged to 2.1V ( a bit high , i had trouble setting active load lower ) measured 3Ah ( 3.5Ah capacity printed on the cell ), will redo to something like 1.8V, ( the seller says 1.5V as cutoff voltage )
I've got a hold of the datasheet for these batteries from the seller, recommended charge profile is as follows;
Constant current of 0.5C until 4.1V, constant voltage until 0.05C.
Cycle life test is done with the same charge profile, except for a lower cutoff voltage of 4.0V.
80% or better capacity after 3000 cycles.
Max charge and discharge rates depend on temperature, most interesting for me is charging down to -10°C at 0.2C, and discharging down to -30°C (also at 0.2C aka 300mA) - with some reduced capacity.
so they say, can you believe? we need independent tests
The usable voltage range looks perfect for Pi Pico projects! (1.8-5.5V input range on VSYS)
2V looks like a reasonable "help my battery is empty" voltage, while still running for a while after that :)
I may be a nerd but this is incredibly exciting for me! I´ve been looking forward to sodium based batteries for a few years now and you provide the first insights in private persons having access to them! Been subscribed for a few years now and you don´t disappoint in bringing up up and coming electrical technologies available for the consumer market. Thank you Julian!
I was thinking the same. I got aware those cells are available on the market just 1 hour ago!
Hi Julian, it looks to me that you actually undercharged the cell with this algorithm and that is why you haven't registered the full capacity. The reason I think that is that your CV phase of charging was terminated abruptly after a too short time. If this cell's behaviour is similar to a Lithium one then once you reached the maximum voltage (in this case 4.1V) the charging should continue (in CV mode) until the charging current drops to about 0.01C. Your charging stopped at about 0.8C, way too early. And there is quite a bit of extra capacity that can be added at that phase. Am I barking at the wrong tree?
I would say it is a very accurate point, There is no battery that can magically be 100% charged just the moment it´s voltage reach the maximum point, it needs time to "soak" the charge completely, that is why you have chargers with Constant current/Constant Voltage characteristics, it is also the same when you discharge a cell that the slower you discharge the more energy you can harvest from a single charge until a point where the chemical reaction is matching the energy output. For maximum energy you simply can´t go faster than a chemical reaction can occur in a cell. it is the reason many batteries have two different capacity ratings depending on a specific C Rate over time.
I think part of the problem is the voltage sense. There should be two wire per side of the battery, one to handle current, and the other to sense cell voltage. The board he uses seems to have this support.
Came here to say this... The charging was cut-off almost immediately after the cell reached 4.1v, while there was still 800ma of current going into the battery.
From the different charging curves i've viewed online, the additional increase in capacity during the CV phase is shown to be in the range of 10-20%.
@@ikocheratcr The 4 wire connection only accounts for voltage drop in the charge cables.
It's not possible to measure the cell voltage independently to the input voltage as the voltage sense connection is still common with the charge connection.
The only way know the cell voltage is to calculate it using the IR of the cell and the current input rate.
Nominal charge/discharge in the datasheet was 0.5C. At higher currents you lose capacity.
Great Video! Just what i wanted to see :)
I saw them on aliexpress, too, but i thought they are just LFP-Cells labeled as sodium ion.
But thanks to your video we now know, that they seem to be real sodium Ion cells! Very nice!
Glad you liked it. The discharger can hold several different discharge curves, so I may make a follow up video showing the different shapes of lithium NMC, LifePO4 and Sodium Ion.
@@JulianIlett I've never heard of those style of batteries, wonder how they will hold up in negative temperature range, wonder if they die as fast as li ion do, @ -37 degree on li-ion style, only last about 10 minutes in the real world test, lorex wireless security camera system lol
@@JulianIlettthat sounds like an awesome idea. I'd also love to see some other cell chemistries as well.
NiCd*
NiMH
NiFe*
Lead acid
* if you can find them
@@JulianIlett- I'm wondering if the discharge curve may look different under different loads values (more or less linear?). Also, what do you think about using a "Joule Thief" circuit to milk it down below 1V? Not sure if you made a Super-Capacitor discharge video, but would be interested in seeing one.
Thanks for the test. I wasn't aware that these Na+Ion cells are already available on consumer level, but 5,70 Eur for one 1,5 Ah Na+Cell is quite expensive, given the specs with low capacity and wide voltage range. Thats definetly a PRO for the LiFePO chemistry that the voltage is very stable at 3.2V instead of 4.1 ... 1.5. You will always need a converter to adapt for voltage change for a specific application ...
The price is cheaper if you buy per 20 instead of one, the the price drops to $2.76 each (1,5 Ah) or $4.93 (3,5 Ah)
Or the really large ones when you buy 2 of them are $33 each (18Ah)
ik wist niet dat gij ook in batterijen geinteresseerd waart? Peter van de solar boot hier.@@ChristopheVerdonck
Pretty cool to see some actual testing with one of these cells! For anyone interested, I cam across, and use a rather useful little TI boost converter IC with an input voltage range of 0.5V-5.5v which could work nice with how low the voltage gets on these sodium ion batteries. It's the TPS61022. Output voltage of 2.2-5.5V, so it's really useful for USB stuff, or, what I use it for, ws2812b LED strip projects. :)
I actually like the way that graph works, it is good to see a 15 second real time data, otherwise we wouldn't be able to see any small fluctuations if they were to happen. Also, it is easier from a coding perspective, get 15 seconds of real time data, average it, then add it to the accumulated data.
I think the charging stage was stopped a bit early. The Cell was still drawing 800mA and that might have offset the voltage quite a bit
Yes I also thought that too.
It wasn't anywhere near fully charged. The charging algorithm should have stopped at about 100mA or thereabouts.
The datasheet should have included a cutoff current
Noticed that too.
@@ericklein5097 Batteries dont have a cutoff current as they can basically charge till they get discharged. For the charger/discharger idk its a cheap thingy probably too variable for it to be documented
Very nice test, i was waiting a long time for a review like this so thank you. For a 1C discharge this is a good result normally lithium batteries are testes with 0,2C discharge rate or lower for capacity tests. as we can see there ist not really a benefit discharge this SI cells below 2 volts. A test under freezing temperatures would be really interesting😅
The reviews are in: "Single handedly the most exciting battery discharge testing video since....well the last one Julian did"
(In earnest: highly informative, thanks)
thx you, you are the first of testing na ion battery
Really a great demonstration. Thanks so much for sharing. Looks promising so far, and I'm sure there are many smart folks and lots of industrial capital working on improving power density as we speak.
Nice work ! I am very interested in trying these cells in a mobile radio app. Nice to see the work you have done. These cells are super safe given the chemistry.
Excellent video
1500mah is way better than I would have expected. 1500mah nmc is still pretty popular, and lifepo4 that I've seen are 1100mah.
you have to take in account also lower voltage compare to NMC , still also because it will become cheaper it looks good, what i'm wondering about is safety
What would happen if you charged the sodium battery to 4.3 volts? Would it shorted the number of charging cycles and if so by how much. I have a diy power bank that usually works with 2 18650 lithium batteries in parallel [which means that the power bank cuts off at 4.2 volts]. The sodium ion battery are supposed to be charged up to 4 volts.
is there any BMS that might be able to manage these yet? i'm looking at the listings for some of these and they look compelling for building a pack out of, since i want something that can be charged below 0°C but i'm not sure if any currently available BMS can be easily configured to properly work with these cells, preferably a smart BMS too so i can get some data via bluetooth
FWIW i have actually ordered the prismatic cells (200Ah) and they offered to ship me a BMS as well, i assume it's just a smart BMS preconfigured for the specific cells but i will give it a shot anyway.
That wide voltage range would make it pretty hard to use without a switch mode power supply. They are also more expensive than LiFePO4 batteries, which can be used as a replacement for lead acid batteries in many applications.
It seems that the charge is not completed. The end conduis not set properly. In CC/CV you usually wait until the current is under 10% of the initial one. Where it was still at 90% when it stops and launch the discharge. That's probably why the voltage drops pretty fast initially.
It may come from how you set the charger to 4.2V. It should be 4.1. At the end of the charge the current is lower so the drop in the wires is not 0.1V
True, the charger didn't do a full CC/CV charge. When I set the charger PSU to 4.1V the charge cycle never completed, but there's probably a sweet-spot voltage that would emulate a full CC/CV charge.
@@JulianIlettI guess you have to adjust the battery voltage using the dl24ew app...
Thanks! Quite interesting! Btw, people that say watcing paint dry is boring, never owned a 3d printer…
Wonderful! I was very curious about how to charge-discharge these new cells. So you get about 90% of the specified capacity from going to 4V down to 2V while discharging at 1C. If you stretch the CV time till the current drops to 0A and stay there for another 10 minutes, I bet you can actually reach the specified 1.5Ah, provided of course that you let the voltage drops to 0V upon discharge. I read somewhere that NA-Ion allows you to go that low without degrading permanently the internal resistance or chemistry of the cell.
A LOT more interesting than watching paint dry. The constant voltage drop during discharge will help in metering the state of charge. But it looks like almost all applications will want some sort of buck / boost circuit to cope with that mahoosive >2:1 charged to discharged voltage.
but much easier to monitor SOC v hard with LFP
That was interesting. I had not realized those are available already. Unfortunately capacity of 1.5Ah is still far behind of 3 to 3.5Ah that lithiums have nowadays easily.
And the watt-hours are even worse as the nominal voltage is lower (another example of why we should stop using amp-hours).
Volumetric density is much lower.
This won't matter much in some applications, but definitely does with electric vehicles.
@@antibrevity That is all true, but the thought of having cells on my ebike that won't burn the place down is kind of reassuring.
@@MiniLuv-1984sodium and lithium as bare metals burn in a similar fashion. The main difference is price as the regular table salt is half sodium. Hard to say if sodium batteries are safer or not.
18650’s were in the 1500mah range not too long ago. As they become more popular these will improve also.
@@yeahbucka3005 Its not the metal that is the problem, it is the electrolyte from what I understand. Perhaps the Na cells use the same kind of electrolyte as Li cells and so these cells are just as capable of self sustained burning that does not require atmospheric oxygen like, for example a petrol fire does.
The voltage step in charge to discharge might in part be caused by the wire and connector resistance between the measurement point on the charting device, and the battery. 60 milliohm series + internal resistance would cause this, and those crocodile clips might have something to do with it.
You need to let the cell absorb to 0.1A coming before starting discharge to get the full cell capacity. Otherwise the Voltage is a false positive.
Where are you getting this information from?
@@jimstand off grid garage, and the manufacturers. All batteries have to absorb at the top. That’s the entire point to CV mode. It keeps the voltage constant and the battery absorbs the last remaining capacity. If you just shut it down when it hits voltage or shortly there after you’ll get 80%ish of the actual capacity of the cell.
This is also why the 1st 80% takes less time than he last 20%. The pressure difference (voltage) in the first 80% is huge and it’s virtually nothing in the last 20% because you can’t force the electrons in anymore it has to equalize with the given pressure.
Great video, much enjoyed. Please do a puncture / damage video to see if its really safer than Li-ion.
Smashing, finally a curve for sodium ion!
is it practical to put a 6v to 12v step up converter boost to maintain the voltage to make it efficient for solar?
very interesting, I had not seen them!
For my big RC models, their current is limiting, but my smaller ones would be ok. Voltage is rather variable, but I am already using BECs in many of my models, so maybe feasible. Definitely something to keep in mind, thanks Julian for the unbiased test!
Surely, in time their performance will improve?
@@soundspark I am sure! But maybe I don't want to wait that long. :D As they are already safer and more robust than Lithium cells, I am definitely interested.
@@YensR And AliExpress cells may not represent the true potential of this new technology.
@@YensR Obviously they are 18650 cells at the moment, so they are very heavy compared to lithium polymer pouch cells, hopefully someone releases a pouch version.
@@cambridgemart2075 weight is not a problem for the models I built, but I am sure pouch cells would be useful for many people.
This is awesome! Now for tests of self-discharge/shelf life, and cycle life. Are sodium-ion batteries usable for long term data logging? Inquiring minds want to know.
How many cycles are possible?
The vendor says 3000+ cycles
thanks @@JulianIlett
Test shows usable energy density is 1/4 that of LifePO4.
I love battery technologies and actually have a set of 3 SIBs. Compared with LiIon I was disappointed. Capacity rapidly degrades by the 40th Cycle to almost 1/2 the capacity of the battery. I still think they have a long way to go to reach the capacity cycles of of LiFePO4 which can reach cycles in their 1000's and still remain at over 65% capacity of their original capacity.
WOT!!! down to 50% capacity after 40 cycles?? is this right The ad claims 3000 cycles (but that Aliex and the PRC)
@@RobinRastle The set of 3 that I tried fell to 56% capacity by 40 cycles. Could be a bad chinese batch or a PRC exagerrated claim. They will never replace Lithium... at least in the short term future. It might be 3000 cycles but how deep are those cycles? That is the question. Where is the discharge curve on the datasheet? Depth of discharge is the key here not discharging to SOC of 70%.
@@billywhizzy Supposedly they lose capacity with deep discharge. Maybe run again with different discharge depths?
@@jghall00 I did not buy more of them because i found it futile. If they were that efficient and notably cheaper, the car manufacturers will swoop up on them to bring the prices down of electric cars. I have also read about them in blogs and the consensus is that it's not excluded for future use, however more work and research needs to be done for these batteries to take over lithium.
I am curious to see how you're going to handle the overdischarge protection, since most Li-ion cell protection chips use a 2.5V cut-off. I'm also interested to see your final setup for the pack. But I'm sure you will reveal all in due course.
Good stuff Julian BCDC just destroys thing . Shame that Atorch battery tester doesnt seem to be available, but the DLP 24 seems to have build and s/w issues and doesnt do graphs just digits
cool vid i had seen these on aliexpress aswell, however with it being aliexpress do we know for sure these are sodium-ion and not just mislabeld to drive sales (e.g. some 3v lipo wich if im not mistaken would have similar discharge curves)
I am on my way to buy also for testing. New to the subject but the one I am interested in is a pack of 75 AH but the nominal voltage is 2,9v. Is this a big no no or normal?
Does it count the 1.5 amp capacity as all the way down to 0 volts? Sort of like losing storage capacity on a hard drive because you have to format it before you can use it.
Very cool
I wonder how thesse cells can tolerate a overdischarge
In case of lithium , if you leave at zero volts (forget a load connected to it), in a few days your battery is unusable capacity.
Thanks for the vid, is the first on youtube discharging theese sodium-ion
Hmm a good video does Sodium not burn in water ?? would be fun to open and wet it🙂
Can you charge sodium ion battery with a standard lithium ion 18650 charger
It is no nerd video. This information is essential for example for drone builders.
How do you know for sure this is a Sodium ion and not a Lithium cell? Isn't the nominal voltage of Sodium between 2.3 to 2.5 volts? While a Nickle based Lithium cell is 3.7 to 4.2. So how are you getting those high voltages from a single Sodium cell?
Sodium ion voltage range is 2V to 4V.
@@JulianIlett Thanks for the info Julian. Do you have a video of them powering something? Especially one where a Lithium cell comparison can be made powering that same appliance? Would love to see one.
If people showed up and stayed to watch a discharge, they're likely to stay for the charge as well ;).
I for one prefer not to see any discharge.
I don't really see this as an EV battery, but rather, home electrical energy storage. I do believe, it would indeed give the full 1.5 amp hour, if it was held at 4.1 volts until current tail. To get that close, (1.45 amp hour) is actually quite impressive. This cell can give LiFePO4 a bit of a contest. It's mean voltage seems to be right in between Lithium Iron Phosphate, and Lithium Nickel Cobalt Manganese. This chemistry would be much more efficient, if used in solar or wind, where it won't be asked to accept a charge at full maximum rated charge current, then discharged at maximum rated current. Electric vehicles tend to require all the current the battery can deliver, but solar storage charges it over several hours, and discharges it over many hours.
Any idea what the cycle life of this cell is?
I wish I could buy a 48v 100ah battery for my solar system here in Egypt. I suspect it will take time for the price to drop. At any rate It will happen. Best regards from Egypt.
So if I replaced the 48V Li ion cells on my e-bike with these sodium cells, how many should I use? The Li pack is (I think) a 14s6p, but at a discharge voltage of 2V, these sodium cells will give me a minimum of 28v (currently 38V with Li) with a max of 56V (currently 57V) I wonder if I should be looking at a 16s (64C max) or even 18s (72V max) configuration? I guess all this depends on what the controller can handle.
What a great development in battery tech! No more threat of a Guy Fawkes in the middle of the night! (I hope).
hi, is no good, you need a na ion bms in first, and what is the configuration of your bike ?
in this configuration, is like 27Amp peak curent maximum and 55 56volt charged the question is, the bike have a descharge protection ? with this battery you need 84 battery like 250€, you need modified bms? and you need all for pack assembly, after that, if you have a bike at 500W at 36v (discharged) you need 14Amp, with sodium battery you need 18Amp, the bike cotroler maximum curent need to controled, the maximum capacity if you full charge discharge is more 350Wh and 9Ah
@@nailuj45 Thanks for all the info. All correct re BMS for Na chemistry, but first right series voltage needs to be worked out, then maximum current, then kWh ratings etc. etc. First things first. What is the correct voltage range, how many series cells if one uses Na cells?
@@MiniLuv-1984 use the same battery S and P, thit is the best, or 16s8p but undercharged, more usable and more life for it, if you have money mak hybride battery withe 4.2v 4000F capacitor, its best for brake recharge, the interest of naion battery, on aliexpresse you have a 200Ah verssion, normaly no fire or explosion, and that is good for on-off gride storage or camping car use becose more safty, the best adventage of na ion is for electric car or other vehicle, no problem at -10°C
a standar use of there celle are 4s6p with supercap for remplace lead acid starter bat
the charge curve is not clear i dont know what is the mecanic carecteristic, is good for powerbank or on base powersupply but 84 of it with the unknow of it ? make a video for crash test for all and after if it positive, use it for a EV
how to switch display into graph? thanks in advance😊
Looks like a decent little cell. I am going to get me some when they become more available.
HI, can somebody help me, where in EU buy this NIBs pris. cells in capacity 70 or 200 or 240 Ah ?
Quite a few comments about LiFePO4 here and I have samples, chargers and protection circuits to try. But I don't find many explorations like this one - most examples are from building large batteries with prismatic cells. Anybody using the 18650 and 32700 sizes ?
Ali Express doesn't seem to be happy to ship these to the UK
With the Cells being slightly longer and wider, I hope they didn't just slap on another shrink wrap over the top that States "sodium-ion".
Did you think of any way to confirm this battery was not Lithium Ion?🤔
What is the avg discharge voltage? Times the capacity is Wh.
Sales and marketing scum love to lie, try discharging at 0.1C (150mA) and see if you get the rated capacity.
What will happen if I try to charge this battery with usual Li-Ion charger?
You will overcharge it.
One thing I hope that the producer of the battery can make is a AAA and AA size sodium ion battery, because 3V is just perfect to fit a dummy cell for the 2 slot serial AA i.e. 2 * 1.5 V = 3V, if they can do these thing it can be a much better solution to NIMH battery for some application.
Very cool test rig! Might be nice to measure battery temp as well.
Cannot find these on Amazon, and only a few sellers on Ali.
Would make sense since the Chinese lead on these type of batteries
Great video! Tha capacity is normally measured @0.1C so 1.5Ah could be possible. The real question is: what are the Wh of LI-Ion, LiFePO4 and SodiumIon of 18650 cells in comparison ;-) And the costs of course! But do I need a balancer, when I build a 3S/4S/5S?
and the weight comparison
Really good work here Julian. Still, 1.46Ah I guess you could technically rounds up and say it's 1.5Ah but it's not 1500mAh All in there number of significant figures. :)
I'd be interested to see how the curve looked after 1000 cycles.
You don't want to run your nifty device there for a couple of thousand hours straight by any chance? I know it would be a pretty long video and even the nerds might get a bit bored of that one!! Still we need to know these things.
I also did a discharge test at 1 amp, and got just over 1.5Ah, and at 2 amps and got less of course. At higher currents the cell gets warmer and more energy is lost as heat.
The load tester does have a CDCDC mode that does two discharges but that's it I'm afraid.
Also thinking of a way to remotely whack a nail through a fully charged cell :)
@@JulianIlett The ones that where shown should be charged and discharged at 0.5 C for max capacity.
Brand Hakadi. the materials are: iron+sodium for the cathode (in the form of Prussian white, or blue. depending on the original manufacturer) and a hard carbon+sodium anode
@@JulianIlett If you're willing to accept a moderate risk, you don't need to necessarily do it remotely, you just need to keep enough of your body far enough away and protect the important bits. GreatScott! showed what happens when you hit a nail through a Li-ion cell in his graphene super capacitor video, and it looked like he was just wearing standard work gloves (and possibly eye protection off camera ... in addition to normal clothing, of course). Find a way to hold the cell firmly in place and get a longer nail, and you can increase the safety factor by increasing the distance your hands have to be from the cell. A pair of welding gloves and a face shield might just be a good investment. Just make sure the Mrs isn't home when you try this.
Hi Julian, I wanted to let you know that the first link (batteries?) doesn’t work.
Where can I get my hands on that meter that you’re using?
only 110wh/kg? That is disappointing. Did you receive it at 0V completely discharged?
The cells came with various states of charge, but I read that they can be shipped at zero volts, and also discharged to 0v without problems.
@@JulianIlett Thanks for the quick reply. I just ordered 1 cell for testing
very enjoyable and informative video Julian,…no suffering whatsoever, 👍
Thanks for doing some battery science, for no reason other than "I WANNA KNOW!"
Thanks for test. I still prefer LiPO4 but it is useful to know what can be done in the sodium world.
That CDC rig has bad voltage scaling. It is not difficult to scale axes to "nice numbers" like 0V 0.5V ,1.0V 1,5V etc instead of 0V, 0.47V 0.95V, 1.42 etc
The time axis scaling is pretty bad too. It's in decimal minutes, so 1.5 minutes is 1 minute 30 seconds.
Looking at this discharge curve I suspect this is Li-ion cell, but with untypical cathode material.
where did you get the load tester from?
Links in the description
is the the futuristic solid state battery they talking about
Yes this is first sodium 🔋 discharge curve video 👍
Now I think you need to add a dc to dc converter so the output voltage will be a bit more flat. Monitor the input dc voltage for a good setpoint to give you a safety factor (just at the knee) not to run out of power.
Neat. It will be interesting to see how the Na vs Li (Ion) batteries fair in the home battery storage market were volume weight is less important. Cars most likely Li ion
Would have thought an absorption period would be beneficial before the discharge cycle. Might have gotten the few extra mAh.
Nice! Thanks for sharing this!
I very much appreciate these insights, cheers.
Good cells but it will be hard to use the full capacity on anything available today inverters will cut out at about half capacity
Thanks for sharing 🎉 finally finding about sodium ion battery
What kind of charger is that?
Useful. So the minimum useful voltage is in fact 2.4 volts
Substantially less power density with a 2V swing between charged and discharged state. Li-ion has about a 1.2V swing and average cells are well over 2Ah, i have some cells that are 3350Mah but most are 2600Mah Use extra cells to get a higher source voltage and then have a buck or the device has a buck regulator to maintain stable operation during a discharge cycle.
Really good video. If that's about the properties sodium ion batteries will have they'll have to be cheaper than LFP to be relevant in most applications. Both lower energy density, and very wide voltage range.
It is a fairly steep discharge curve, far greater than LFP etc...
The cycle life time is something to query too. Lots of claims by manufacturers but I want to see how a given product performs once the public starts to use & abuse it.
Sodium Ion can charge and discharge in a very wide temperature range, -70c to 100c which beats LifePO4 hands down.
Was it expensive?
How can we know its not just a re labeled li-ion cell?
Because of the voltage profile. LifePO4 are flat discharge over 3.3-3.4v. 100% of rated cap for LifePO4 measured from full charge 3.65v to 2.5v. Sodium starts higher ay 3.75v and has a constant slope down to 1.5v.
Great informative video about a new battery chemistry in this form factor.
with the final joke I stopped suffering. thanks, very interesting
Thank you very much for this video.
Great video sir, very informative. Thankyou.
That's interesting. I wonder if it would be easy to implement a battery level meter for these cells. You can just measure the voltage and get a good idea of how much capacity you have left.
I think so and it should be more accurate than prediction for many other battery types.
Very interesting and gloriously nerdy 👍
The very large voltage range is more like the characteristics of a capacitor than those of a battery.
You didn't let it charge at 4.1 volts long enough. Set it at 4.15 for 10 minutes for that size cell. It won't harm it to sit at 4.15 for 3 hours either. You just need to let it charge longer.
Did I just hear that correctly? 1500 mAH? Like the capacity of a AA REchargeable NiMh Battery cell?
🤣
Cool that the voltage you get is in the 4v-2v range. But a NiMh Battery at that size would be close to 5000 mAH with the only downside (Or upside) of low (Stable discharge) cell voltage of ~1.2v during the discharge cycle at the rated nominal load for a NiMh 18650 style sized cell.
Seems to me that these are great for being cheap. I just don't see them being THAT cheap compared to Lithium cells. Used one's particularly. And the claimed lifetime is probably about the same as most cellphone cells, without the capacity of course.
I really wonder how well these will do overtime?
I also think that these are really going to be in VERY large format batteries such as a good replacement for under the hood car lead acid batteries, where heat kills AGM type cells. Hence why Flooded Lead Acid cells have been my choice for under the hood duty in my cars.
With Lead Acid units seemingly being up at the $200 range? Seems like sodium might be the logical next step if it can compete with the raw current a Lead Acid or AGM style battery can deliver. Heck, anything lasts longer for a deep cycle type cell the lead acid or AGM.
Wonder what a 12v battery would really look like with these cells & its optimal configuration in a car battery.
If these sodium cells can do well enough in below freezing temps like in a cold climate? And do great under HOT temps under a hood?
I see this being the battery of choice for ICE cars going forward into the future if the hype lives up to the claims.
Also? Seems to me like the 18650ish form factor is fine for lithium. Not so much with sodium due to capacity or watt hours per/ Kg.
I see disposable E-cigs take the sodium route as well.
thankyou julian
That discharge curve looks like an NaNiMnTi, aka nmt, nickel manganese titanium oxide
Nice and detailed explanation. Could you make a detailed review of the product from Bangood " DL24EW 150W Tuya WiFi Smart Power Electronic Load Tester" discussing all the features including all 9 modes of operation???
How do they burn?
There is a nail penetration test of these batteries already on RUclips.
Cool i think you're first ..
I would say the range here is 3.95-2.37v looking at the graph.
I think it would be worth checking out the other cells that are available, i was going to grab the sob cell prismatics, they're a bigger ah.
But probably better to test the chemistry in than small cells.
Gen 1 is supposed to be 145wh/kg
Can you concur the weight to power density?
Love that - not at all nerdy.