Recent developments in electrode materials for sodium-ion batteries

Abstract

The most recent developments on Na-ion battery electrode materials are introduced and reviewed in this article.

Structural elucidation of NASICON (Na3Al2P3O12) based glass electrolyte materials: effective influence of boron and gallium

“…1,4,5 In searching for alternative energy sources, abundant, economical and non-toxic sodium (Na) metal has been considered by the scientic community and continuous efforts have been carried out so far for the development of Na-batteries. [5][6][7][8] Although the concept of Na-batteries has been proposed and proved several years ago, the topic has rematerialized again. Because of the heavier weight of Na batteries, they exhibit a primary disadvantage of having a low theoretical energy density compared to their lithium counterparts.…”

“…Recent studies proposed that the output voltage of certain Na-based materials could compete with that of lithium batteries and thus, opened the opportunity to investigate and develop the Na-based materials. [5][6][7][8] Considerable efforts are presently in progress to improve appropriate electrolyte and electrode materials for practically feasible Na-batteries. 7,9,10 Among the various types of electrolyte materials, solid electrolyte materials have attracted signicant interest compared to those of the liquid electrolytes because of the protection from leakage, volatilization, or ammability.…”

Why is sodium-intercalated graphite unstable?

“…For these large-scale applications, however, limited lithium reserves are a serious concern, and in recent years efforts to develop practical sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have increased rapidly because of sodium's much greater crustal abundance. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Compared to the range of sodium-intercalating materials proposed for use as positive electrodes, 1-8 the materials known to be suitable for use as the negative electrode are considerably fewer in number. [1][2][3][4][5][6]9 In conventional LIBs, graphite is commonly used as the negative electrode because of its ability to reversibly intercalate Li ions, forming a series of binary graphite intercalation compounds (GICs) as it does so.…”

“…Graphite intercalated with electron donors such as alkali metals display a rich variety of phases with different compositions and crystal structures. LiC 6 and KC 8 are examples of stage-1 GICs with the metal intercalated between all the graphite layers. The staging index refers to the number of graphene layers between two successive layers of intercalated alkali metal atoms.…”

Sodium ion storage in reduced graphene oxide

“…Recent research has been focusing on identifying and developing suitable electrode materials for the sodium-ion energy storage technology. While a number of cathode materials for NIBs have been investigated in the past [3,5], there have been only a few anode materials that are suitable for NIBs. Pristine sodium metal as anode (gravimetric capacity of 1165 mA h g -1 ) leads to the formation of dendrites, causing thermal runaway [6].…”