AI Screened 100,000 Solvents for a Sodium Battery, but Chemists Still Tested the Final 27

MIT researchers used a machine-learning pipeline to generate 100,000 electrolyte-solvent candidates, narrowed them to 27 laboratory tests and identified a smaller molecule that improved ion transport. A sodium-metal test cell retained about 85.9% capacity after 1,600 cycles, but commercial scale, safety and manufacturing remain unproved.