Ultra-stable sodium metal-iodine batteries enabled by an in-situ solid electrolyte interphase

Huajun Tian, Hezhu Shao, Yi Chen, Xiaqin Fang, Pan Xiong, Bing Sun, Peter H.L. Notten, Guoxiu Wang (Corresponding author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

72 Citations (Scopus)
108 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

High capacity sodium (Na) metal anodes open up new opportunities for developing next-generation rechargeable batteries with both high power and high energy densities. However, many challenges still plagued their practical application, including low plating/stripping Coulombic efficiency (CE) and dendrite growth after repeated cycle inducing safety issue. Especially, the sodium metal is less stable in organic (i.e. carbonate-based) electrolytes than lithium metal, due to the more unstable organic solid–electrolyte interface (SEI). Herein, we report a facile technology to stabilize sodium metal anode and inhibit the growth of sodium dendrites. The in-situ ultrathin NaI SEI layer successfully endows best-performance Na/I2 metal batteries (>2200 cycles) with high capacity (210 mA h g−1 at 0.5 C) based on the conversion reaction chemistry with higher discharge voltage plateau (> 2.7 V) and lower overpotential (134 mV) due to the fast charge transfer dynamics and interfacial stability compared with pristine Na anode. The detailed theoretical calculations and experimental results elucidate that NaI layer has a much lower diffusion barrier compared to that of NaF (NaF as one the most commonly found inorganic components in Na-based SEI layer), and actually facilitates more uniform sodium deposition. This work provides a new avenue for designing low-cost, high-performance and high-safety sodium metal-iodine batteries and other metal-iodine batteries.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)692-702
Number of pages11
JournalNano Energy
Volume57
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2019

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the Australian Rail Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (RMCRC, Project R1.1.1 ), the Australian Research Council (ARC DP160104340 and DP170100436 ) and the UTS Early Career Researcher Grant ( PRO17-4473 ). Appendix A

Keywords

  • In-situ reaction
  • NaI
  • Sodium metal anodes
  • Sodium-iodine batteries
  • Solid electrolyte interface

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