A Monolithic Solid-State Sodium-Sulfur Battery with Al-Doped Na3.4Zr2(Si0.8P0.2O4)3 Electrolyte

Liang Lu; Yao Lu; José Antonio Alonso; Carlos Alberto López; Maria Teresa Fernández-Díaz; Bingsuo Zou; Chunwen Sun

doi:10.1021/acsami.1c13000

A Monolithic Solid-State Sodium-Sulfur Battery with Al-Doped Na_3.4Zr₂(Si_0.8P_0.2O₄)₃ Electrolyte

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Sep 15;13(36):42927-42934. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c13000. Epub 2021 Aug 31.

Authors

Liang Lu^{1

2}, Yao Lu³, José Antonio Alonso⁴, Carlos Alberto López^{4

5}, Maria Teresa Fernández-Díaz⁶, Bingsuo Zou^{1

7}, Chunwen Sun^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, P. R. China.
² School of Chemical & Environmental Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing, Beijing 100083, P. R. China.
³ CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, P. R. China.
⁴ Instituto de Ciencia de los Materiales de Madrid, CSIC, E-28049 Cantoblanco-Madrid, Spain.
⁵ INTEQUI (UNSL, CONICET) and Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia, UNSL, Chacabuco y Pedernera, San Luis 5700, Argentina.
⁶ Institut Laue Langevin, BP 156X, Grenoble F-38042, France.
⁷ Guangxi Key Lab of Processing for Nonferrous Metals and Featured Materials and Key Lab of New Processing Technology for Nonferrous Metals and Materials, Ministry of Education; School of Resources, Environments and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, P. R. China.

PMID: 34463469
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c13000

Abstract

The limit of the energy density and increasing security issues on sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) impede their further development. Solid-state sodium metal batteries are potential candidates to replace the present SIBs. However, low ionic conductivity and poor interface contact hinder their progress. In this work, the impact of Al doping on the crystalline structure and ionic transport in Na_3.4Zr₂(Si_0.8P_0.2O₄)₃ was studied by neutron powder diffraction. The ionic conductivity of Na_3.5Zr_1.9Al_0.1Si_2.4P_0.6O₁₂ achieves 4.43 × 10^-3 S cm^-1 at 50 °C. The polarization voltage of the Na||Na symmetric battery is about 40 mV after cycling for more than 1600 h. Moreover, a solid-state sodium-sulfur battery with a monolithic structure was constructed to alleviate the interfacial resistance problems. Its specific discharge capacity can still keep 300 mA h g^-1 after 480 cycles at 300 mA g^-1. The work provides a promising strategy to design solid-state sodium-sulfur batteries with high performances.

Keywords: Al-doped Na3.4Zr2(Si0.8P0.2O4)3; ionic transport; monolithic structure; neutron powder diffraction; sodium−sulfur battery.