Template‐Free Construction of Self‐Supported Sb Prisms with Stable Sodium Storage

Abstract

Antimony (Sb) is a promising anode material for sodium‐ion batteries owing to its large capacity of 660 mAh g−1. However, its practical application is restricted by the rapid capacity decay resulted from a large volume expansion up to 390% upon Na alloying. Herein, construction of a self‐supported Sb array that has enough space allowing for effective accommodation of the volume change is reported. The array of Sb prisms is directly grown on a Cu substrate via a template‐free electrodeposition, followed by mild heating to consolidate the structural integrity between Sb and Cu. The resulting 3D architecture endows the Sb array with excellent sodium storage performance, exhibiting a reversible capacity of 578 mAh g−1 and retaining 531 mAh g−1 over 100 cycles at 0.5 C. The potential of Sb array in sodium‐ion full cells by pairing it with a Na0.67(Ni0.23Mg0.1Mn0.67)O2 cathode is further demonstrated. This full cell affords a specific energy of 197 Wh kg−1 at 0.2 C and a specific power of 1280 W kg−1 at 5 C. Considering its low cost and scale‐up capability, the template‐free route may find extensive applications in designing electrode architectures.

Advantageous Functional Integration of Adsorption‐Intercalation‐Conversion Hybrid Mechanisms in 3D Flexible Nb2O5@Hard Carbon@MoS2@Soft Carbon Fiber Paper Anodes for Ultrafast and Super‐Stable Sodium Storage

“…The current SIBs anodes are mainly divided into four types by the various Na-storage mechanisms: 1) alloy-type (Sn, Sb, Ge, etc. ), [7][8][9] 2) conversion-type (MoS 2 , WS 2 , SnS 2 , etc. ), [10][11][12] 3) intercalation-type (TiO 2 , Na 2 Ti 3 O 7 , Nb 2 O 5 , etc.…”

“…[4][5][6] Thus, it is urgent to develop the electrode materials for SIBs with excellent energy and power density as well as superior cycling stability.The current SIBs anodes are mainly divided into four types by the various Na-storage mechanisms: 1) alloy-type (Sn, Sb, Ge, etc. ), [7][8][9] 2) conversion-type (MoS 2 , WS 2 , SnS 2 , etc. ), [10][11][12] 3) intercalation-type (TiO 2 , Na 2 Ti 3 O 7 , Nb 2 O 5 , etc.…”

Rational Design of Sb@C@TiO2 Triple‐Shell Nanoboxes for High‐Performance Sodium‐Ion Batteries

“…[2,3] Although SIBs share a similar chemical storage mechanism with lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), finding suitable electrode materials that can effectively host Na + ions, which are larger than Li + ions, and are stable during cycling remains a considerable challenge. [4] Over the past decade, extensive efforts have been devoted to developing appropriate anode materials with a high rate capability and good cycling stability for SIBs, such as carbonaceous materials, [5][6][7] conversion-type materials (e.g., metal oxides, [8] chalcogenides, [9][10][11][12][13] and phosphides [14,15] ), intercalation compounds, [16][17][18][19][20][21] and alloy-type materials (e.g., Sb, [22][23][24][25][26][27][28] Bi, [29][30][31][32] P, [33][34][35] and Sn [36,37] ). Among them, metallic Sb is regarded as one of the most promising anode materials for SIBs because of its high theoretical capacity of around 660 mAh g −1 (corresponding to Na 3 Sb) and appropriate redox potential (0.5-0.8 V vs Na/Na + ).…”

Xenes as an Emerging 2D Monoelemental Family: Fundamental Electrochemistry and Energy Applications

“…Since Si, Ge, Sn, As, Sb, and Bi have the ability to form binary alloys with lithium and sodium, their theoretical capacity is relatively high. [155,232,[255][256][257][258] However, their reaction kinetics is low, and a serious volume change can be found after ion intercalation and deintercalation of Li/Na ion batteries, which affects the rate and cycle life. This significant volume expansion leads to the smashing and decrystallizations of electrode particles and thus disconnection of particles from each other.…”