NASA’s future missions demand high energy density batteries. Current state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) reach the specific energy capacity limits (<250 Wh/kg), thus new electrochemical storage technologies are needed to meet NASA’s future mission requirement of >400 Wh/kg. Battery chemistries with higher theoretical energy densities in particular, Li-metal based battery chemistries such as Li-air, are being actively pursued, but there remains a number of issues to be solved. The development of a new system based on sodium (Na)-air battery chemistry, with theoretical energy of 1600 Wh/kg and an equilibrium discharge potential of 2.3V, is an attractive and promising new system that has potential to achieve a rechargeable battery that meets NASA’s needs.  Being rich abundance on earth but having similar electrochemical properties as lithium, sodium has the potential to be a low cost replacement for lithium in electrochemical storage technologies.

Development of novel and optimized air cathodes will be crucial for improving capacity retention and cycle life of Na-air battery. The microstructure of carbon substrates and the catalytic oxygen reduction of the air-cathode play critical roles in the electrochemical performance in metal-air batteries. With the development and proper selection of air cathodes, the energy efficiency and energy density can be enhanced significantly. In this presentation, the results of air cathodes with nano carbon materials and incorporation with catalysts on oxygen reduction reactions will be presented, and the performance of these air-cathodes in the Na-air cells will be discussed as well.