Researchers at the University of Surrey in the UK have discovered that keeping water inside a key battery material dramatically boosts performance. The batteries then store nearly twice as much charge, charge faster and remain stable for hundreds of cycles. This makes them among the top-performing sodium batteries ever.

Science Daily reported that sodium-ion batteries are emerging as a promising option for cleaner, more sustainable energy storage.

Lithium-ion batteries currently dominate the market, but they depend on costly materials that can harm the environment. Sodium, by contrast, is abundant and widely accessible. Even so, matching the performance of lithium-ion technology has been a major hurdle for sodium-ion systems.