Sodium ion batteries represent a drop-in technology and a more sustainable alternative to Li-ion, but higher energies and power levels are required to meet the demands required by a greener electrification. Here, the design of an anode-free sodiumion battery is presented and its performances discussed in terms of reduced mass and high power capabilities. The cell consists of an Iron Hexacyanoferrate-reduced Graphene Oxide composite as cathode material whose synthesis is tailored to achieve minimal structural defects (3%) and water content. Its high-potential redox couple FeLS(C) is stabilized at high rates, granting the full cell with high discharge voltage and power. As negative substrate, a carbon coated aluminum foil was adopted for in situ plating/stripping of Na metal, showing very small voltage hysteresis up to an applied current of 2 mA/cm 2. Overall, this simplified full cell architecture can deliver up to 340 Wh/kg and 500 W/kg at nominal 1C retaining 80% in 250 cycles, with the possibility of delivering 9000 W/kg at 20C. Bridging the boundaries between batteries and supercapacitors, this research aims to expand the range of possible applications for Na-ion technology.
A 12.5 at% replacement of Sb with Bi in Sb2Te3leads to a Na-ion battery anode material with enhanced resistance to mechanical degradation when used as micron-sized powder and not as a nanostructured carbon composite.
1D carbon structures are attractive due to their mechanical, chemical and electrochemical properties. Further enhancements to these structures can be made by creating structural hierarchy, producing composites with catalytically active metal nanoparticle domains -however the synthesis of these materials can be costly and complicated. Here, through the combination of inexpensive acetylacetonate salts of Ni, Co and Fe with a solution of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) which was electrospun and subsequently heat treated, self-assembling carbon-metal fabrics (CMFs) containing unique 1D hierarchical structures can be created readily. Microscopic and spectroscopic measurements show that the CMFs form through the decomposition and exsolution of metal nanoparticle domains which then catalyse the formation of carbon nanotubes through the decomposition by-products of the PAN. These weakly bound nanoparticles form structures similar to trichomes found in plants, with a combination of base-growth, tip-growth and peapod-like structures, where the metal domain exhibits a core(graphitic)-shell(disorder) 2 carbon coating where the thickness is in-line with the metal-carbon binding energy. The applicability of these carbon-metal fabrics (CMFs) was demonstrated as a cathode in an allsolid-state zinc-air battery which exhibited superior performance to pure electrospun carbon fibres, in addition to enhanced mechanical flexibility due to the enhanced surface area of the hairy fibres and their metallic nanoparticle domains which acted as bifunctional catalysts to oxygen reduction and evolution. This work therefore unlocks a potentially new category of composite metal-carbon fibre based structures for energy storage applications and beyond, which can be created in a low cost manner.
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