Tailoring Nitrogen Terminals on MXene Enables Fast Charging and Stable Cycling Na-Ion Batteries at Low Temperature

Yang Xia; Lanfang Que; Fuda Yu; Liang Deng; Zhenjin Liang; Yunshan Jiang; Meiyan Sun; Lei Zhao; Zhenbo Wang

doi:10.1007/s40820-022-00885-7

Tailoring Nitrogen Terminals on MXene Enables Fast Charging and Stable Cycling Na-Ion Batteries at Low Temperature

Nanomicro Lett. 2022 Jul 9;14(1):143. doi: 10.1007/s40820-022-00885-7.

Authors

Yang Xia¹, Lanfang Que², Fuda Yu³, Liang Deng¹, Zhenjin Liang⁴, Yunshan Jiang¹, Meiyan Sun¹, Lei Zhao⁵, Zhenbo Wang^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, State Key Lab of Urban Water Resources and Environment, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, People's Republic of China.
² Engineering Research Center of Environment-Friendly Functional Materials, Ministry of Education, Institute of Materials Physical Chemistry, Huaqiao University, Xiamen, 361021, People's Republic of China. quelanfang@126.com.
³ Engineering Research Center of Environment-Friendly Functional Materials, Ministry of Education, Institute of Materials Physical Chemistry, Huaqiao University, Xiamen, 361021, People's Republic of China.
⁴ The Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, People's Republic of China.
⁵ MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, State Key Lab of Urban Water Resources and Environment, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, People's Republic of China. leizhao@hit.edu.cn.
⁶ MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, State Key Lab of Urban Water Resources and Environment, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, People's Republic of China. wangzhb@hit.edu.cn.
⁷ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518071, People's Republic of China. wangzhb@hit.edu.cn.

Abstract

Sodium-ion batteries stand a chance of enabling fast charging ability and long lifespan while operating at low temperature (low-T). However, sluggish kinetics and aggravated dendrites present two major challenges for anodes to achieve the goal at low-T. Herein, we propose an interlayer confined strategy for tailoring nitrogen terminals on Ti₃C₂ MXene (Ti₃C₂-N_funct) to address these issues. The introduction of nitrogen terminals endows Ti₃C₂-N_funct with large interlayer space and charge redistribution, improved conductivity and sufficient adsorption sites for Na⁺, which improves the possibility of Ti₃C₂ for accommodating more Na atoms, further enhancing the Na⁺ storage capability of Ti₃C₂. As revealed, Ti₃C₂-N_funct not only possesses a lower Na-ion diffusion energy barrier and charge transfer activation energy, but also exhibits Na⁺-solvent co-intercalation behavior to circumvent a high de-solvation energy barrier at low-T. Besides, the solid electrolyte interface dominated by inorganic compounds is more beneficial for the Na⁺ transfer at the electrode/electrolyte interface. Compared with of the unmodified sample, Ti₃C₂-N_funct exhibits a twofold capacity (201 mAh g^-1), fast-charging ability (18 min at 80% capacity retention), and great superiority in cycle life (80.9%@5000 cycles) at - 25 °C. When coupling with Na₃V₂(PO₄)₂F₃ cathode, the Ti₃C₂-N_funct//NVPF exhibits high energy density and cycle stability at - 25 °C.

Keywords: Fast charging; Interfacial kinetics; Low-temperature SIBs; Na+-solvent co-intercalation; Tailoring nitrogen terminals.