NASICON-type air-stable and all-climate cathode for sodium-ion batteries with low cost and high-power density

Mingzhe Chen; Weibo Hua; Jin Xiao; David Cortie; Weihua Chen; Enhui Wang; Zhe Hu; Qinfen Gu; Xiaolin Wang; Sylvio Indris; Shu-Lei Chou; Shi-Xue Dou

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09170-5

NASICON-type air-stable and all-climate cathode for sodium-ion batteries with low cost and high-power density

Nat Commun. 2019 Apr 1;10(1):1480. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09170-5.

Authors

Mingzhe Chen¹, Weibo Hua², Jin Xiao^{3

4}, David Cortie¹, Weihua Chen⁵, Enhui Wang^{1

6}, Zhe Hu¹, Qinfen Gu⁷, Xiaolin Wang¹, Sylvio Indris², Shu-Lei Chou⁸, Shi-Xue Dou¹

Affiliations

¹ Australian Institute for Innovative Materials, Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, Innovation Campus, Squires Way, North Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia.
² Institute for Applied Materials-Energy Storage Systems (IAM-ESS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.
³ School of Science, Hunan University of Technology, Zhuzhou, 412007, P. R. China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of the Superlattices and Microstructures Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, P. R. China.
⁵ College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, P. R. China. chenweih@zzu.edu.cn.
⁶ College of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, P. R. China.
⁷ Australian Synchrotron, 800 Blackburn Road, Clayton, VIC, 3168, Australia.
⁸ Australian Institute for Innovative Materials, Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, Innovation Campus, Squires Way, North Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia. shulei@uow.edu.au.

Abstract

The development of low-cost and long-lasting all-climate cathode materials for the sodium ion battery has been one of the key issues for the success of large-scale energy storage. One option is the utilization of earth-abundant elements such as iron. Here, we synthesize a NASICON-type tuneable Na₄Fe₃(PO₄)₂(P₂O₇)/C nanocomposite which shows both excellent rate performance and outstanding cycling stability over more than 4400 cycles. Its air stability and all-climate properties are investigated, and its potential as the sodium host in full cells has been studied. A remarkably low volume change of 4.0% is observed. Its high sodium diffusion coefficient has been measured and analysed via first-principles calculations, and its three-dimensional sodium ion diffusion pathways are identified. Our results indicate that this low-cost and environmentally friendly Na₄Fe₃(PO₄)₂(P₂O₇)/C nanocomposite could be a competitive candidate material for sodium ion batteries.

Publication types

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