Improving the capacity of sodium ion battery using a virus-templated nanostructured composite cathode

Maryam Moradi; Zheng Li; Jifa Qi; Wenting Xing; Kai Xiang; Yet-Ming Chiang; Angela M Belcher

doi:10.1021/nl504676v

Improving the capacity of sodium ion battery using a virus-templated nanostructured composite cathode

Nano Lett. 2015 May 13;15(5):2917-21. doi: 10.1021/nl504676v. Epub 2015 Apr 6.

Authors

Maryam Moradi¹, Zheng Li¹, Jifa Qi¹, Wenting Xing¹, Kai Xiang¹, Yet-Ming Chiang¹, Angela M Belcher¹

Affiliation

¹ †Department of Materials Science and Engineering, ‡The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and §Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.

PMID: 25811762
DOI: 10.1021/nl504676v

Abstract

In this work we investigated an energy-efficient biotemplated route to synthesize nanostructured FePO4 for sodium-based batteries. Self-assembled M13 viruses and single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been used as a template to grow amorphous FePO4 nanoparticles at room temperature (the active composite is denoted as Bio-FePO4-CNT) to enhance the electronic conductivity of the active material. Preliminary tests demonstrate a discharge capacity as high as 166 mAh/g at C/10 rate, corresponding to composition Na0.9FePO4, which along with higher C-rate tests show this material to have the highest capacity and power performance reported for amorphous FePO4 electrodes to date.

Keywords: SWCNT; Sodium ion battery; amorphous FePO4; biotemplated active material; high-power rechargeable battery.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.