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Scientist Lu Yaxiang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Physics, has spent a decade working to make sodium-ion batteries commercially viable.
Those years of work on energy storage in April earned Lu a China Youth May Fourth Medal – the nation’s top honour for outstanding achievers under 35.
For years, lithium-ion batteries have dominated the market, even though their raw materials are scarce and environmentally demanding to extract.
Sodium-ion batteries are seen as an alternative, but they have been constrained by their lower energy density.
Lu took the approach that sodium – a mineral that is abundant, cheap and easy to source – was vital for China’s energy security.
That led to a focus on materials innovation to boost the performance of sodium-ion batteries.
“Every aspect of our work directly addresses real-world engineering needs and focuses closely on the industry’s primary concerns – stability, cost-effectiveness and manufacturability,” she told the official Science and Technology Daily in June.

The big moment came in 2024, when Lu and her team cracked a four-decade-old problem – why sodium-layered oxides rapidly deteriorate when exposed to air – and published their findings in the journal Science.
Previous studies have shown that layered oxide cathode materials are an ideal choice for producing high-energy-density sodium batteries. That is because their processing is simple and they have, in theory, a high specific capacity – meaning the electric charge a battery material can store for its weight.
For years, scaling up the production of these materials proved difficult because they are highly susceptible to degradation when exposed to air. But it was not clear what components in the air were the culprits.
That rapid degradation significantly increases production costs and complexity so it has hindered the development of sodium-ion batteries.
Lu’s team isolated the components of air to find the culprits. They discovered that water vapour does not cause damage on its own. Instead, it acts as a bridge for other gases in the air to degrade the cathode material.
By identifying exactly how this reaction occurs, the team established clear design rules to create air-stable materials.
Her team also addressed a fundamental hurdle in solid-state battery development – the poor contact between solid electrodes and electrolytes.
Solid-state electrolytes offer advantages over conventional liquid systems. They eliminate leakage, ensure long battery cycle life through excellent electrochemical stability, and enable higher energy density due to high-voltage cathode compatibility.
In a 2023 paper published in Nature Energy, the researchers reported on a new electrolyte material that combines high ionic conductivity with viscoelasticity – a property that allows the material to behave like both a liquid and a solid.
This breakthrough overcomes the traditional brittleness of solid electrolytes and the poor conductivity of polymer alternatives, a feat the official newspaper hailed as “turning the impossible into reality”.
Lu earned her PhD at the University of Birmingham in Britain in 2015 and joined the University of Surrey as a postdoctoral researcher.
She returned to China in 2017 to join the CAS Institute of Physics through an International Young Scientist Fellowship, and served as an associate professor before being promoted to professor in 2024.
As China continues its transition towards an “electrostate”, Lu sees her field as a strategic mission to secure the nation’s energy future.
“I strive to follow the example of remarkable women – becoming stronger, more confident and refusing to limit myself,” Lu was quoted as saying.


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China

Award-winner Lu Yaxiang and her team are working towards making commercially viable batteries from the abundant, low-cost mineral


Award-winner Lu Yaxiang and her team are working towards making commercially viable batteries from the abundant, low-cost mineral.


The young Chinese scientist behind an ‘impossible’ breakthrough on sodium batteries

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Award-winner Lu Yaxiang and her team are working towards making commercially viable batteries from the abundant, low-cost mineral

Award-winner Lu Yaxiang and her team are working towards making commercially viable batteries from the abundant, low-cost mineral