Na-based batteries are proposed as promising energy storage candidates for beyond Li-ion technology due to the higher natural earth of Na metal. For its high capacity and low potential, Na metal may carve itself a niche when directly used as anodes. Similar to or even more problematic than Li, however, uneven plating/stripping of Na leads to dendrite formation. As the plating substrates, current collectors have a paramount influence on the Na plating/stripping behaviors. Here we propose porous Al current collectors as the plating substrate to suppress Na dendrites. Al does not alloy with Na. It is advantageous over Cu current collectors in terms of cost and weight. The interconnected porous structure can increase available surface for Na to nucleate and decrease the Na+ flux distribution, leading to homogeneous plating. The Na metal anodes can run for over 1000 cycles on porous Al with a low and stable voltage hysteresis and their average plating/stripping Coulombic efficiency was above 99.9%, which is greatly improved compared to planar Al. We used the porous Al for Na-O2, Na-Na3V2(PO4)3 cells with low Na amount and anode free Na-TiS2 batteries and anticipate that using this strategy can be combined with further electrolyte and cathodes to develop high performance Na-based batteries.
Keywords: Na metal anodes; Porous Al; SEI; battery; microstructure.