Houston researchers make headway on affordable, sustainable sodium-ion battery

Energy Solutions

Rice's Atin Pramanik and a team in Pulickel Ajayan's lab shared new findings that offer a sustainable alternative to lithium batteries by enhancing sodium and potassium ion storage. Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Courtesy Rice University

A new study by researchers from Rice University’s Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Baylor University and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram has introduced a solution that could help develop more affordable and sustainable sodium-ion batteries.

The findings were recently published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

The team worked with tiny cone- and disc-shaped carbon materials from oil and gas industry byproducts with a pure graphitic structure. The forms allow for more efficient energy storage with larger sodium and potassium ions, which is a challenge for anodes in battery research. Sodium and potassium are more widely available and cheaper than lithium.

“For years, we’ve known that sodium and potassium are attractive alternatives to lithium,” Pulickel Ajayan, the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor of Engineering at Rice, said in a news release. “But the challenge has always been finding carbon-based anode materials that can store these larger ions efficiently.”

Lithium-ion batteries traditionally rely on graphite as an anode material. However, traditional graphite structures cannot efficiently store sodium or potassium energy, since the atoms are too big and interactions become too complex to slide in and out of graphite’s layers. The cone and disc structures “offer curvature and spacing that welcome sodium and potassium ions without the need for chemical doping (the process of intentionally adding small amounts of specific atoms or molecules to change its properties) or other artificial modifications,” according to the study.

“This is one of the first clear demonstrations of sodium-ion intercalation in pure graphitic materials with such stability,” Atin Pramanik, first author of the study and a postdoctoral associate in Ajayan’s lab, said in the release. “It challenges the belief that pure graphite can’t work with sodium.”

In lab tests, the carbon cones and discs stored about 230 milliamp-hours of charge per gram (mAh/g) by using sodium ions. They still held 151 mAh/g even after 2,000 fast charging cycles. They also worked with potassium-ion batteries.

“We believe this discovery opens up a new design space for battery anodes,” Ajayan added in the release. “Instead of changing the chemistry, we’re changing the shape, and that’s proving to be just as interesting.”

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This story originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

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Pieremanuele Canepa, Robert Welch assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UH, is leading a research project that can change the effectiveness of sodium-ion batteries. Photo courtesy of UH

UH researchers develop breakthrough material to boost efficiency of sodium-ion batteries

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A research lab at the University of Houston has developed a new type of material for sodium-ion batteries that could make them more efficient and boost their energy performance.

Led by Pieremanuele Canepa, Robert Welch assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UH, the Canepa Research Laboratory is working on a new material called sodium vanadium phosphate, which improves sodium-ion battery performance by increasing the energy density. Energy density is the amount of energy stored per kilogram, and the new material can do so by more than 15 percent. With a higher energy density of 458 watt-hours per kilogram — compared to the 396 watt-hours per kilogram in older sodium-ion batteries — this material brings sodium technology closer to competing with lithium-ion batteries, according to the researchers.

The Canepa Lab used theoretical expertise and computational methods to discover new materials and molecules to help advance clean energy technologies. The team at UH worked with the research groups headed by French researchers Christian Masquelier and Laurence Croguennec from the Laboratoire de Reáctivité et de Chimie des Solides, which is a CNRS laboratory part of the Université de Picardie Jules Verne, in Amiens France, and the Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux, Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France for the experimental work on the project.

The researchers then created a battery prototype using the new materia sodium vanadium phosphate, which demonstrated energy storage improvements. The material is part of a group called “Na superionic conductors” or NaSICONs, which is made to let sodium ions move in and out of the battery during charging and discharging.

“The continuous voltage change is a key feature,” Canepa says in a news release. “It means the battery can perform more efficiently without compromising the electrode stability. That’s a game-changer for sodium-ion technology.”

The synthesis method used to create sodium vanadium phosphate may be applied to other materials with similar chemistries, which could create new opportunities for advanced energy storage. A paper of this work was published in the journal Nature Materials.

"Our goal is to find clean, sustainable solutions for energy storage," Canepa adds. "This material shows that sodium-ion batteries can meet the high-energy demands of modern technology while being cost-effective and environmentally friendly."

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This article originally appeared on EnergyCapital.

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Houston palliative care company integrates with Epic platforms

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Patients and medical teams using MyChart and other Epic Systems' software will now be able to access Houston-based Koda Health's AI-enhanced end-of-life planning platform.

The Houston-based palliative care company, which was born out of the TMC's Biodesign Fellowship, has integrated its advance care planning platform with Epic, one of the most widely used electronic health record (EHR) systems in the U.S., according to a news release.

Epic estimates that more than 325 million patients have a current electronic record in its systems.

“This is a significant milestone for our mission to make advance care planning scalable, meaningful, and seamless,” Tatiana Fofanova, CEO and co-founder of Koda Health, said in the release. “By integrating into systems already used by care teams, we help eliminate friction and ensure that care delivery honors what patients truly want—especially during serious illness and at the end of life.”

The partnership will streamline processes for both patients and clinicians. Users will be able to drop advance care plans directly into the Epic charts, which will be accessible through MyChart for patients and proxies and through Epic Hyperspace/Hyperdrive for care teams. Doctors can also initiate and manage advance care plans through a simple Epic order for patients.

According to Koda Health, its platform saves an average of $10,000 to $15,000 per patient. Roughly 85 percent of users complete advance care plan documents when using the platform, which is four times the national average.

“We developed Koda to give providers the time, training, and tools to guide these critical conversations," Dr. Desh Mohan, co-founder and chief medical officer at Koda Health, added in the statement. "Our integration now makes it possible to operationalize ACP at scale—aligned with value-based care goals and clinical reality.”

The company announced a partnership with Dallas-based Guidehealth, which integrates into primary care workflows and allows providers to identify high-risk patients, coordinate care and reduce administrative burden. Guidehealth works with more than 500,000 patients

Koda Health was founded in 2020 and closed an oversubscribed seed round for an undisclosed amount last year, with investments from AARP, Memorial Hermann Health System and the Texas Medical Center Venture Fund. The company also added Kidney Action Planning to its suite of services in 2024.

Xfinity goes all-in with new national internet plan

Everything's Included

Following the successful launch and positive consumer reaction to Xfinity’s new 5-year guarantee, the nation’s largest Internet Service Provider (ISP) has launched its everyday pricing (EDP) structure with four simple national Internet tiers that include unlimited data and the advanced Xfinity WiFi Gateway for one low monthly price.

This move is part of the company’s broader strategy to give consumers simple, predictable, all-in plans for the best WiFi in the market. All plans include a line of Xfinity Mobile at no additional cost for a year.

“We said we were going to go ‘all-in’ on a new pricing strategy and we are delivering with our 5-year price lock and our new everyday price plans," says Steve Croney, chief operating officer, Connectivity & Platforms at Comcast. "Now all our Xfinity Internet packages are built on simplicity and transparency — no hidden fees, no confusion — just the best, most reliable and secure WiFi that sets a new standard for the ultimate connected experience. We’re coming out swinging with a superior WiFi product that easily beats the competition at an even better price point for customers.”

 Xfinity pricing table Graphic courtesy of Xfinity

Xfinity delivers the fastest, most reliable* WiFi experience with multi-gig speeds, a low-lag connection for gaming and streaming, the capacity to connect hundreds of devices in the home, and unbeatable wall-to-wall WiFi coverage.

The Xfinity WiFi Gateway blankets the home with cybersecurity protection and provides other advanced WiFi features and parental controls, all easily accessible in the newly redesigned Xfinity app, allowing customers to optimize and manage their WiFi experience in the home.

An unlimited line of Xfinity Mobile is also included at no cost for a year with these plans.

Only Xfinity Mobile customers have access to WiFi PowerBoost, a game-changing feature which increases Xfinity Mobile speeds up to 1 gig — no matter the plan they choose — when they are connected over WiFi in the home or anywhere else on the Xfinity WiFi network, the largest and fastest in the nation.

With 90 percent of mobile traffic traveling over WiFi, Xfinity Mobile is created for how customers use their mobile devices, combining the nation’s best WiFi with the most reliable 5G network.

Consumers can sign up for Xfinity Internet and Xfinity Mobile online at www.xfinity.com or at their local Xfinity store.

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*www.opensignal.com

Houston startup funding surpasses $1B in 2025 despite national slowdown

by the numbers

Houston-area startups raised more than $1 billion in venture capital during the first half of 2025 — almost double the haul for the first half of last year.

According to the new PitchBook-NCVA Venture Monitor, Houston-area startups raised $417.2 million in the second quarter of this year, compared with $281 million during the same period last year. In the first quarter of 2025, local startups collected $607.5 million in venture capital, compared with $281 million during the same period a year earlier.

Based on those figures, Houston-area startups picked up slightly over $1 billion in VC during the first half of this year, compared with $535 million in the first half of 2024.

Nationally, startups gained almost $70 billion in VC in the second quarter, down 25 percent from the same period a year ago, the PitchBook-NCVA Venture Monitor says.

Nizar Tarhuni, executive vice president of research and market intelligence at PitchBook, explained that “the VC landscape continues to navigate a fragile recovery” and is constrained by economic uncertainty.

However, startups in certain sectors are poised to attract a great deal of attention and venture capital over the next several years, according to the report.

“Companies operating in AI, national security, defense tech, fintech, and crypto — sectors aligned with the administration’s priorities — are attracting disproportionately more investor interest, and this trend will likely continue throughout President Donald Trump’s term,” the report says.

The AI sector accounted for 64 percent of VC deal value in the first half of 2025, according to the report.

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