Hello, I'm Dana Taylor, and this is a special episode of USA Today's The Excerpt.

From laptops to electric cars, lithium-ion batteries are in so many of the products we use every day.

It's hard to imagine there is an alternative.

But a half century ago, sodium ion batteries were also on the table as an option.

Today, with metals like lithium harder and more expensive to source, electronics firms are taking another look at sodium

ion to power our modern devices. With greater availability, lower manufacturing costs, and more

stable chemistry, could sodium ion batteries be the key to powering our future? To answer these

questions more, I'm now joined by Shirley Munn, a University of

Chicago professor and material scientists who studied sodium ion batteries. Thanks for joining us

on the excerpt, Shirley. Pleasure to be here. Let's talk about sodium ion versus lithium

ion batteries. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

So imagine that the working ions is the bigger ions. So many people think the bigger ions

will be slower, meaning when you charge, discharge the battery, the ions move at a slower

speed. But that's the wrong assumption.

Actually, scientifically, we have proven that sodium ions can actually move very, very quickly

between the negative and the positive electrodes.

So one of the major advantages that sodium ions provide is that the device tend to be more power and actually enabling more fast charging

capability. So we are actually very excited about the physical properties of the sodium

iron. And the second, very important consequences of the physical properties of the sodium iron

is that you can enable lower temperature

operation. So I'm from Chicago. Sometimes Chicago's weather can be a little bit of problematic

for lithium iron batteries. Actually, sodium iron can provide a solution for the lower temperature

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