Advances in sodium-ion batteries at low-temperature: Challenges and strategies

With the continuing boost in the demand for energy storage,there is an increasing requirement for batteries to be capable of operation in extreme environmental conditions.Sodium-ion batteries(SIBs) have emerged as a highly promising energy storage solution due to their promising performance over a wide range of temperatures and the abundance of sodium resources in the earth's crust.Compared to lithiumion batteries(LIBs),although sodium ions possess a larger ionic radius,they are more easily desolvated than lithium ions.Fu rthermore,SIBs have a smaller Stokes radius than lithium ions,resulting in improved sodium-ion mobility in the electrolyte.Nevertheless,SIBs demonstrate a significant decrease in performance at low temperatures(LT),which constrains their operation in harsh weather conditions.Despite the increasing interest in SIBs,there is a notable scarcity of research focusing specifically on their mechanism under LT conditions.This review explores recent research that considers the thermal tolerance of SIBs from an inner chemistry process perspective,spanning a wide temperature spectrum(-70 to100℃),particularly at LT conditions.In addition,the enhancement of electrochemical performance in LT SIBs is based on improvements in reaction kinetics and cycling stability achieved through the utilization of effective electrode materials and electrolyte components.Furthermore,the safety concerns associated with SIBs are addressed and effective strategies are proposed for mitigating these issues.Finally,prospects conducted to extend the environmental frontiers of commercial SIBs are discussed mainly from three viewpoints including innovations in materials,development and research of relevant theoretical mechanisms,and intelligent safety management system establishment for larger-scale energy storage SIBs.

In-situ formation of hierarchical solid-electrolyte interphase for ultra-long cycling of aqueous zinc-ion batteries

Aqueous rechargeable zinc ion batteries have received widespread attention due to their high energy density and low cost.However,zinc metal anodes face fatal dendrite growth and detrimental side reactions,which affect the cycle stability and practical application of zinc ion batteries.Here,an in-situ formed hierarchical solid-electrolyte interphase composed of InF3,In,and ZnF2 layers with outside-in orientation on the Zn anode(denoted as Zn@InF3)is developed by a sample InF3 coating.The inner ultrathin ZnF2 interface between Zn anode and InF3 layer formed by the spontaneous galvanic replacement reaction between InF3 and Zn,is conductive to achieving uniform Zn deposition and inhibits the growth of Zinc dendrites due to the high electrical resistivity and Zn2+conductivity.Meanwhile,the middle uniformly generated metallic In and outside InF3 layers functioning as corrosion inhibitor suppressing the side reaction due to the waterproof surfaces,good chemical inactivity,and high hydrogen evolution overpotential.Besides,the as-prepared zinc anode enables dendrite-free Zn plating/stripping for more than 6,000 h at nearly 100%coulombic efficiency(CE).Furthermore,coupled with the MnO2 cathode,the full battery exhibits the long cycle of up to 1,000 cycles with a low negative-to-positive electrode capacity(N/P)ratio of 2.8.

Defect engineering on carbon black for accelerated Li-S chemistry

Rationally designing sulfur hosts with the functions of confining lithium polysulfides(LiPSs)and promoting sulfur reaction kinetics is critically important to the real implementation of lithium-sulfur(Li-S)batteries.Herein,the defect-rich carbon black(CB)as sulfur host was successfully constructed through a rationally regulated defect engineering.Thus-obtained defect-rich CB can act as an active electrocatalyst to enable the sulfur redox reaction kinetics,which could be regarded as effective inhibitor to alleviate the LiPS shuttle.As expected,the cathode consisting of sulfur and defect-rich CB presents a high rate capacity of 783.8 mA·h·g^−1 at 4 C and a low capacity decay of only 0.07% per cycle at 2 C over 500 cycles,showing favorable electrochemical performances.The strategy in this investigation paves a promising way to the design of active electrocatalysts for realizing commercially viable Li-S batteries.

一种具有高能量密度、长循环寿命的水基可充电锰酸锂/锌实用电池

本文报道了一种达到实际使用规格的水基可充电锌离子大电池,该电池以锰酸锂为正极材料、锌粉为负极材料,电流10 A时其能量密度可达80 W h kg^-1,成本低于0.4 RMB kg^-1.该电池体系使用一种专门开发的石墨-尼龙复合集流体作为正极集流体,该复合集流体具有耐腐蚀性强、重量轻、价格便宜的特点.通过向电解液中添加尿素的方法有效地抑制了锌枝晶生长.该电池在10 A电流下充放电400次,容量保留率达到90%.该电池可应用于电动自行车、混动汽车及其他储能领域.

Bipolar electrode architecture enables high-energy aqueous rechargeable sodium ion battery

Aqueous rechargeable sodium ion batteries(ARSIBs),with intrinsic safety,low cost,and greenness,are attracting more and more attentions for large scale energy storage application.However,the low energy density hampers their practical application.Here,a battery architecture designed by bipolar electrode with graphite/amorphous carbon film as current collector shows high energy density and excellent rate-capability.The bipolar electrode architecture is designed to not only improve energy density of practical battery by minimizing inactive ingredient,such as tabs and cases,but also guarantee high rate-capability through a short electron transport distance in the through-plane direction instead of in-plane direction for traditional cell architecture.As a proof of concept,a prototype pouch cell of 8 V based on six Na_(2)MnFe(CN)_(6)||NaTi_(2)(PO_(4))_(3)bipolar electrodes stacking using a“water-in-polymer”gel electrolyte is demonstrated to cycle up to 4,000 times,with a high energy density of 86 Wh·kg^(−1)based on total mass of both cathode and anode.This result opens a new avenue to develop advance high-energy ARSIBs for grid-scale energy storage applications.