The current growing need of energy storage is an issue that can be solved at least partially by electrochemical storage, like batteries. Nowadays, most of the Li-ion battery cathodes are made of lithium cobalt oxide, LiCoO₂, prepared by highly energy consuming solid state processes, involving solid state method at high temperature and for long reaction times (600-900°C, 36hours [1]). Aurelien Crochet and Jean-Pierre Brog of the Fromm group developed a way of producing the high-temperature phase of LiCoO₂ (HT-LiCoO₂) [2] at low temperature using heterometallic Li-Co alkoxides complexes as molecular precursors, following the general equation below.

[Li₂Co(OR)₄(L)₄] → HT-LiCoO₂ + Li₂CO₃ + CO₂ + H₂O

Despite lower performances, Na-ion batteries are good candidates in an effort to produce cheaper and more environmentally friendly batteries compared to Li-ion batteries. Complexes of [Na_xM_y(OR)_z(L)_a], where M is a transition metal, OR an alkyl or aryl oxide group and L a ligand, can be synthesized in analogy to the lithium precursors in order to use them for the generation of sodium metal oxides. Those oxides will be characterized and tested as cathode materials. We will present our first efforts and results on this kind of synthesis.