An official website of the United States government
Abstract Intermittent renewable energy sources can mitigate climate change, but they require high-performance, reliable batteries. The widely used lithium-ion batteries contain Li, Co, and Ni, and the growing demand for these elements, together with their relatively limited sources, has raised concerns about their supply chain stability. Sodium-ion batteries have become an economical alternative. Sodium vanadium phosphate, Na3V2(PO4)3 (NVP), is a compelling candidate with high stability and ionic conductivity due to its polyanionic sodium superionic conductor (NASICON) structure. However, NVP suffers from poor electronic conductivity and requires hierarchical morphology to allow facile ion and electron transfer. Spray-drying has been used to achieve hierarchical secondary particle structures, but the foremost reported NVP syntheses rely on either flammable/toxic organic solvents or expensive nanocarbon additives. In this study, we spray-dry an aqueous suspension without using expensive carbon additives. The obtained NVP sodium-ion half cells showed very high reversible capacity (114.7 mAh g-1 at 0.2C), high rate capability (80.8% capacity retention at 30C), and stable cycling performance (96.7% capacity retention after 1,500 cycles at 10C). This superior performance demonstrates the great promise for NVP batteries as an alternative energy storage option to traditional lithium-ion batteries.
more »
« less
Biomimetic composite architecture achieves ultrahigh rate capability and cycling life of sodium ion battery cathodes
Sodium ion batteries are an emerging candidate to replace lithium ion batteries in large-scale electrical energy storage systems due to the abundance and widespread distribution of sodium. Despite the growing interest, the development of high-performance sodium cathode materials remains a challenge. In particular, polyanionic compounds are considered as a strong cathode candidate owing to their better cycling stability, a flatter voltage profile, and stronger thermal stability compared to other cathode materials. Here, we report the rational design of a biomimetic bone-inspired polyanionic Na3V2(PO4)3-reduced graphene oxide composite (BI-NVP) cathode that achieves ultrahigh rate charging and ultralong cycling life in a sodium ion battery. At a charging rate of 1 C, BI-NVP delivers 97% of its theoretical capacity and is able to retain a voltage plateau even at the ultra-high rate of 200 C. It also shows long cycling life with capacity retention of 91% after 10 000 cycles at 50 C. The sodium ion battery cells with a BI-NVP cathode and Na metal anode were able to deliver a maximum specific energy of 350 W h kg−1 and maximum specific power of 154 kW kg−1. In situ and postmortem analyses of cycled BI-NVP (including by Raman and XRD spectra) HRTEM, and STEM-EELS, indicate highly reversible dilation–contraction, negligible electrode pulverization, and a stable NVP-reduced graphene oxide layer interface. The results presented here provide a rational and biomimetic material design for the electrode architecture for ultrahigh power and ultralong cyclability of the sodium ion battery full cells when paired with a sodium metal anode.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1938833
- PAR ID:
- 10588265
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Institute of Physics
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Applied Physics Reviews
- Volume:
- 7
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 1931-9401
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract High‐voltage lithium metal batteries with nickel‐rich oxide cathodes (LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2, NCM811) represent one of the most promising approaches to achieve high energy density up to 500 Wh kg−1. However, severe interfacial side reactions occur at both NCM811 cathode and lithium anode at ultrahigh voltages (>4.6 V). To address these issues, various electrolytes have been developed, but they still suffer from electrolyte decomposition, leading to moderate voltages and insufficient cycling. Herein, we introduce (3,3,3‐trifluoropropyl)trimethoxy silane (TTMS) as an asymmetrically fluorinated single solvent, which incorporates both strongly solvating (─OCH3) and weakly solvating (─CF3) groups. The designed 2.1 mol L−1(M) LiFSI/TTMS electrolyte achieves excellent compatibility with both NCM811 cathode and Li metal anode due to its unique anion‐dominating solvation structures and inorganic‐rich interphase formation. Consequently, it enables stable cycling in the Li||NCM811 battery at an ultrahigh voltage of 4.8 V, with 84.5% capacity retention after 300 cycles. Even under more aggressive conditions, including high temperature (60 °C) and anode‐less configuration (N/P ratio = 1.76), the Li||NCM811 battery exhibits remarkable capacity retention (>80%) over 300 cycles. This work underscores the effectiveness of electrolyte engineering for developing ultrahigh‐voltage and long‐cycling battery systems.more » « less
-
Abstract Sodium‐ion batteries have attracted extensive interest as a promising solution for large‐scale electrochemical energy storage, owing to their low cost, materials abundance, good reversibility, and decent energy density. For sodium‐ion batteries to achieve comparable performance to current lithium‐ion batteries, significant improvements are still required in cathode, anode, and electrolyte materials. Understanding the functioning and degradation mechanisms of the materials is essential. Computational techniques have been widely applied in tandem with experimental investigations to provide crucial fundamental insights into electrode materials and to facilitate the development of materials for sodium‐ion batteries. Herein, the authors review computational studies on electrode materials in sodium‐ion batteries. The authors summarize the current state‐of‐the‐art computational techniques and their applications in investigating the structure, ordering, diffusion, and phase transformation in cathode and anode materials for sodium‐ion batteries. The unique capability and the obtained knowledge of computational studies as well as the perspectives for sodium‐ion battery materials are discussed in this review.more » « less
-
Aqueous sodium-ion batteries (ASIBs) represent a promising battery technology for stationary energy storage, due to their attractive merits of low cost, high abundance, and inherent safety. Recently, a variety of advanced cathode, anode, and electrolyte materials have been developed for ASIBs, which not only enhance our fundamental understanding of the Na insertion mechanism, but also facilitate the research and development of practical ASIB systems. Among these electrode materials, iron-based materials are of particular importance because of the high abundance, low price, and low toxicity of Fe elements. However, to our knowledge, there are no review papers that specifically discuss the properties of Fe-based materials for ASIBs yet. In this review, we present the recent research progress on Fe-based cathode/anode materials, which include polyanionic compounds, Prussian blue, oxides, carbides, and selenides. We also discuss the research efforts to build Fe-based ASIB full cells. Lastly, we share our perspectives on the key challenges that need to be addressed and suggest alternative directions for aqueous Na-ion batteries. We hope this review paper can promote more research efforts on the development of low-cost and low-toxicity materials for aqueous battery applications.more » « less
-
Sodium- and potassium-ion batteries are one of the most promising electrical energy storage devices at low cost, but their inferior rate and capacity have hampered broader applications such as electric vehicles and grids. Carbon nanomaterials have been demonstrated to have ultrafast surface-dominated ion uptake to drastically increase the rate and capacity, but trial-and-error approaches are usually used to find desired anode materials from numerous candidates. Here, we developed guiding principles to rationally screen pseudocapacitive anodes from numerous candidate carbon materials to create ultrafast Na- and K-ion batteries. The transition from pseudocapacitive to metal-battery mechanisms on heteroatom-doped graphene in charging process was revealed by the density functional theory methods. The results show that the graphene substrate can guide the preferential growth of K and Na along graphene plane, which inhibits dendrite development effectively in the batteries. An intrinsic descriptor is discovered to establish a volcano-shaped relationship that correlates the capacity with the intrinsic physical qualities of the doping structures, from which the best anode materials could be predicted. The predictions are in good agreement with the experimental results. The strategies for enhancing both the power and energy densities are proposed based on the predictions and experiments for the batteries.more » « less
