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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.
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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.
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- 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
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