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

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

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Holly ChikPublished: 8:00pm, 14 Jul 2026

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.

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