Abstract
Sodium-based batteries have attracted wide interests in the academic and industrial fields. However, their energy density is still lower than that of Li-based batteries. Here we report an initial anode-free Na battery with an energy density of over 200 Wh kg−1, which is even higher than that of the commercial LiFePO4||graphite battery. Through introducing graphitic carbon coating on the Al current collector and boron-containing electrolytes in the battery, we show that uniform nucleation and robust interphases enable reversible and crack-free Na deposition. Benefitting from the synergetic effects derived from the built cooperative interfaces, the cycling lifetime of the Na battery without applying additional pressure reaches 260 cycles, which is the longest life for large-size cells with zero excess Na. The insights gained from the Na plating/stripping behaviour and interfacial chemistry in this work pave the way for further development of Na batteries with even higher performance.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC) of China (51725206, 52122214 and 52072403), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA21070500), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2020006) and Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (2212022).
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Y.-S.H. conceived and designed this work; Yuqi L. prepared the materials and carried out the electrochemical measurements and calculations; Yuqi L., Q.Z. and Yu L. assembled the pouch cells and cylindrical cells. Yuqi L., S.W., F.D., J.L. and X.Z. carried out the ex situ or in situ characterizations and analysis; Yuqi L., Yaxiang L. and Y.-S.H. wrote the manuscript; all the authors participated in the discussion to improve the paper and made revisions of the whole manuscript.
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X.W. and H.L. are employed at Tianmu Lake Institute of Advanced Energy Storage Technologies. Q.Z., X.Q. and Y.-S.H. are employed at HiNa Battery Technology Co., Ltd.
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Nature Energy thanks Naoaki Yabuuchi and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Li, Y., Zhou, Q., Weng, S. et al. Interfacial engineering to achieve an energy density of over 200 Wh kg−1 in sodium batteries. Nat Energy 7, 511–519 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-022-01033-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-022-01033-6
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