A robust battery separator is constructed using nanomaterials derived from seaweed by a team lead by Bristol, opening the door for cleaner and more effective energy storage. One of the most promising high-energy and affordable energy storage solutions for the upcoming wave of large-scale applications is sodium-metal batteries (SMBs). However, uncontrolled dendrite formation, which penetrates the battery's separator and causes short-circuiting, is one of the main barriers to the development of SMBs. The team has been successful in creating a separator out of cellulose nanoparticles generated from brown seaweed, building on earlier work at the University of Bristol and working