Given the high energy density, alkali metals are preferred in rechargeable batteries as anodes, however, with significant limitations such as dendrite growth and volume expansion, leading to poor cycle life and safety concerns. Herein a room‐temperature liquid alloy system is proposed as a possible solution for its self‐recovery property. Full extraction of alkali metal ions from the ternary alloy brings it back to the binary liquid eutectic, and thus enables a self‐healing process of the cracked or pulverized structure during cycling. A half‐cell discharge specific capacity of up to 706.0 mAh g−1in lithium‐ion battery and 222.3 mAh g−1for sodium‐ion battery can be delivered at 0.1C; at a high rate of 5C, a sizable capacity of over 400 mAh g−1for Li and 60 mAh g−1for Na could be retained. Li and Na ion full cells with considerable stability are demonstrated when pairing liquid metal with typical cathode materials, LiFePO4, and P2‐Na2/3[Ni1/3Mn2/3]O2. Remarkable cyclic durability, considerable theoretical capacity utilization, and reasonable rate stability present in this work allow this novel anode system to be a potential candidate for rechargeable alkali‐ion batteries.
Graphite anodes offer low volumetric capacity in lithium‐ion batteries. By contrast, tellurene is expected to alloy with alkali metals with high volumetric capacity (≈2620 mAh cm−3), but to date there is no detailed study on its alloying behavior. In this work, the alloying response of a range of alkali metals (A = Li, Na, or K) with few‐layer Te is investigated. In situ transmission electron microscopy and density functional theory both indicate that Te alloys with alkali metals forming A2Te. However, the crystalline order of alloyed products varies significantly from single‐crystal (for Li2Te) to polycrystalline (for Na2Te and K2Te). Typical alloying materials lose their crystallinity when reacted with Li—the ability of Te to retain its crystallinity is therefore surprising. Simulations reveal that compared to Na or K, the migration of Li is highly “isotropic” in Te, enabling its crystallinity to be preserved. Such isotropic Li transport is made possible by Te's peculiar structure comprising chiral‐chains bound by van der Waals forces. While alloying with Na and K show poor performance, with Li, Te exhibits a stable volumetric capacity of ≈700 mAh cm−3, which is about twice the practical capacity of commercial graphite.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10454489
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Energy Materials
- Volume:
- 11
- Issue:
- 7
- ISSN:
- 1614-6832
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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