Sodium metal is one of the most promising anodes for
the prospective
low-cost rechargeable batteries. Nevertheless, the commercialization
of Na metal anodes remains restricted by sodium dendrite growth. Herein,
halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) were chosen as the insulated scaffolds,
and Ag nanoparticles were introduced as sodiophilic sites to achieve
uniform sodium deposition from bottom to top under the synergistic
effect. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation results demonstrated
that the presence of Ag greatly increased the binding energy of sodium
on HNTs/Ag (−2.85 eV) vs HNTs (−0.85 eV). Meanwhile,
thanks to the opposite charges on the inner and outer surfaces of
HNTs, faster Na+ transfer kinetics and selective adsorption
of SO3CF3
– on the inner surface
of HNTs were achieved, thus avoiding the formation of space charge.
Accordingly, the coordination between HNTs and Ag afforded a high
Coulombic efficiency (about 99.6% at 2 mA cm–2),
long lifespan in a symmetric battery (for over 3500 h at 1 mA cm–2), and remarkable cycle stability in Na metal full
batteries. This work offers a novel strategy to design a sodiophilic
scaffold by nanoclay for dendrite-free Na metal anodes.
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