Researchers at the Tokyo University of Science, led by Shinichi Komaba developed a battery made partly of sucrose-derived carbon, as well as sodium. These sugar batteries store 20% more energy than batteries made with traditional non-sugar derived carbon.
Sugar Cubes. Photo obtained with thanks from Uwe Hermann on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uwehermann/
The significance of this technology lies in the fact that it is made of the abundant, cheap, and renewable materials sucrose and sodium.
Lithium-ion batteries are made of 1.5% to 3% lithium, and, while lithium is rare in its pure state, it is obtained from more abundant compounds such as lithium carbonate and lithium chloride.
The availability of lithium is currently not an issue, but, it is a metal, and most metals are finite. I should add that countries which are unable to obtain lithium because of embargoes with lithium-producing countries would need battery technology as universal as this because sodium and sugar can be obtained by everyone in the world. Sodium and sugar do occur naturally everywhere.
Read more about the sustainability of lithium-ion batteries here.
Source: Discovery
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