Rapidly Constructing Sodium Fluoride-Rich Interface by Pressure and Diglyme-Induced Defluorination Reaction for Stable Sodium Metal Anode

Small. 2023 May;19(19):e2207540. doi: 10.1002/smll.202207540. Epub 2023 Feb 8.

Abstract

Sodium (Na) metal is able to directly use as a battery anode but have a highly reductive ability of unavoidably occurring side reactions with organic electrolytes, resulting in interfacial instability as a primary factor in performance decay. Therefore, building stable Na metal anode is of utmost significance for both identifying the electrochemical performance of laboratory half-cells employed for quantifying samples and securing the success of room-temperature Na metal batteries. In this work, we propose an NaF-rich interface rapidly prepared by pressure and diglyme-induced defluorination reaction for stable Na metal anode. Once the electrolyte is dropped into the coin-type cells followed by a slight squeeze, the Na metal surface immediately forms a protective layer consisting of amorphous carbon and NaF, effectively inhibiting the dendrite growth and dead Na. The resultant Na metal anode exhibits a long-term cycling lifespan over 1800 h even under the area capacity of 3.0 mAh cm-2 . Furthermore, such a universal and facile method is readily applied in daily battery assembly regarding Na metal anode.

Keywords: Na metal anodes; PTFE; cryo-transmission electron microscope (TEM); defluorination reaction; diglyme.