Engineering Na+-layer spacings to stabilize Mn-based layered cathodes for sodium-ion batteries

Wenhua Zuo; Xiangsi Liu; Jimin Qiu; Dexin Zhang; Zhumei Xiao; Jisheng Xie; Fucheng Ren; Jinming Wang; Yixiao Li; Gregorio F Ortiz; Wen Wen; Shunqing Wu; Ming-Sheng Wang; Riqiang Fu; Yong Yang

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-25074-9

Engineering Na⁺-layer spacings to stabilize Mn-based layered cathodes for sodium-ion batteries

Nat Commun. 2021 Aug 12;12(1):4903. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-25074-9.

Authors

Wenhua Zuo¹, Xiangsi Liu¹, Jimin Qiu², Dexin Zhang³, Zhumei Xiao¹, Jisheng Xie¹, Fucheng Ren⁴, Jinming Wang⁵, Yixiao Li¹, Gregorio F Ortiz⁶, Wen Wen⁷, Shunqing Wu³, Ming-Sheng Wang⁸, Riqiang Fu⁹, Yong Yang^{10

11}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, People's Republic of China.
² School of Advanced Materials, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Physics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Optoelectronic Semiconductors and Efficient Devices, Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Condensed Matter Physics, Xiamen University, Xiamen, People's Republic of China.
⁴ School of Energy Research, Xiamen University, Xiamen, People's Republic of China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, College of Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, People's Republic of China.
⁶ Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University Research Institute in Nanochemistry (IUNAN), University of Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain.
⁷ Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
⁸ State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, College of Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, People's Republic of China. mswang@xmu.edu.cn.
⁹ National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, People's Republic of China. yyang@xmu.edu.cn.
¹¹ School of Energy Research, Xiamen University, Xiamen, People's Republic of China. yyang@xmu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Layered transition metal oxides are the most important cathode materials for Li/Na/K ion batteries. Suppressing undesirable phase transformations during charge-discharge processes is a critical and fundamental challenge towards the rational design of high-performance layered oxide cathodes. Here we report a shale-like Na_xMnO₂ (S-NMO) electrode that is derived from a simple but effective water-mediated strategy. This strategy expands the Na⁺ layer spacings of P2-type Na_0.67MnO₂ and transforms the particles into accordion-like morphology. Therefore, the S-NMO electrode exhibits improved Na⁺ mobility and near-zero-strain property during charge-discharge processes, which leads to outstanding rate capability (100 mAh g^-1 at the operation time of 6 min) and cycling stability (>3000 cycles). In addition, the water-mediated strategy is feasible to other layered sodium oxides and the obtained S-NMO electrode has an excellent tolerance to humidity. This work demonstrates that engineering the spacings of alkali-metal layer is an effective strategy to stabilize the structure of layered transition metal oxides.