Suppression of Gas Crossover and Dendrite Growth in Sodium-Gas Batteries across a Wide Operating Temperature Range

ACS Nano. 2022 Nov 22;16(11):17965-17972. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.2c05211. Epub 2022 Sep 23.

Abstract

Enabling highly stable alkali metal anodes in gas atmospheres, such as oxygen and carbon dioxide, is critical for the implementation of emerging metal-gas batteries with high energy density and improved safety. Herein, we demonstrate a three-salt electrolyte system to tackle the problems of gas crossover and uncontrolled metallic dendrite growth for all-climate sodium-gas batteries by the formation of an electrochemically/chemically stable solid electrolyte interphase that is rich in fluoride and sulfate compounds. Consequently, the sodium metal anodes present high reversible capacity (10 mAh cm-2 at 1.5 mA cm-2) and long cycle life (2000 h) in gas atmospheres across a wide operating temperature range. Using the three-salt electrolyte, all-climate sodium-oxygen and sodium-carbon dioxide batteries are demonstrated with a reversible capacity of 1000 mAh g-1 over 100 cycles at ambient temperature and good adaptability to temperatures from -60 to 60 °C.

Keywords: dendrite growth; electrolyte design; gas crossover; sodium metal anodes; solid electrolyte interphase.