In this study, we demonstrate that elastic strain applied to a current collector can influence the overall thermodynamic and kinetic picture of sodium metal electrodeposition and hence the performance of a sodium metal battery. To controllably study the role of strain in electrochemical performance, we utilize NiTi foil as a stable current collector, nucleation interface, and superelastic material. Our findings demonstrate that a locked-in elastic tensile strain near 8% results in 40 mV lower onset potential for sodium electrodeposition, 19% decrease in charge transfer resistance, and 20% lower cumulative sodium loss, among other effects. These performance improvements are correlated primarily to the control of the irreversible behavior in the first few minutes of electroplating. Given the prevalence of strain buildup in commercial battery cell configurations, our work highlights that strained current collector interfaces can result in significant long-term chemo-mechanical performance outcomes broadly relevant to sodium and other metal battery design considerations.
Keywords: anode-free; mechano-electrochemistry; nucleation layer; sodium electroplating; sodium metal battery.