Electrostatic Shielding Boosts Electrochemical Performance of Alloy-Type Anode Materials of Sodium-Ion Batteries

Cheng Zheng; Deluo Ji; Qian Yao; Zhongchao Bai; Yansong Zhu; Chuanhao Nie; Duo Liu; Nana Wang; Jian Yang; Shixue Dou

doi:10.1002/anie.202214258

Electrostatic Shielding Boosts Electrochemical Performance of Alloy-Type Anode Materials of Sodium-Ion Batteries

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2023 Mar 27;62(14):e202214258. doi: 10.1002/anie.202214258. Epub 2022 Dec 22.

Authors

Cheng Zheng¹, Deluo Ji¹, Qian Yao¹, Zhongchao Bai^{2

3}, Yansong Zhu¹, Chuanhao Nie⁴, Duo Liu⁵, Nana Wang⁴, Jian Yang¹, Shixue Dou^{4

3}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, P. R. China.
² College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266590, P. R. China.
³ Institute of Energy Materials Science (IEMS), University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, P. R. China.
⁴ Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia.
⁵ Institute of Novel Semiconductors, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, P. R. China.

PMID: 36451256
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202214258

Abstract

The applications of alloy-type anode materials for Na-ion batteries are always obstructed by enormous volume variation upon cycles. Here, K⁺ ions are introduced as an electrolyte additive to improve the electrochemical performance via electrostatic shielding, using Sn microparticles (μ-Sn) as a model. Theoretical calculations and experimental results indicate that K⁺ ions are not incorporated in the electrode, but accumulate on some sites. This accumulation slows down the local sodiation at the "hot spots", promotes the uniform sodiation and enhances the electrode stability. Therefore, the electrode maintains a high specific capacity of 565 mAh g^-1 after 3000 cycles at 2 A g^-1 , much better than the case without K⁺ . The electrode also remains an areal capacity of ≈3.5 mAh cm^-2 after 100 cycles. This method does not involve time-consuming preparation, sophisticated instruments and expensive reagents, exhibiting the promising potential for other anode materials.

Keywords: Alloy-Type Anode; Electrolyte; Electrostatic Shielding; Sn; Sodium-Ion Batteries.

Abstract

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