Low-Temperature Aqueous Na-Ion Batteries:Strategies and Challenges of Electrolyte Design

Aqueous Na-ion batteries(ANIBs)are considered to be promising secondary battery systems for grid-scale energy storage applications and have attracted widespread attention due to their unique merits of rich resources of Na,as well as the inherent safety and low cost of aqueous electrolytes.However,the narrow electrochemical stability widow and high freezing point of traditional dilute aqueous electrolytes restrict their multi-scenario applications.Considering the charge-storage mechanism of ANIBs,the optimization and design of aqueous Nabased electrolytes dominate their low-temperature performance,which is also hot off the press in this field.In this review,we first systematically comb the research progress of the novel electrolytes and point out their remaining challenges in ANIBs.Then our perspectives on how to further improve the low-temperature performance of ANIBs will also be discussed.Finally,this review briefly sheds light on the potential direction of low-temperature ANIBs,which would guide the future design of high-performance aqueous rechargeable batteries.

A novel one-step reaction sodium-sulfur battery with high areal sulfur loading on hierarchical porous carbon fiber

Room temperature sodium-sulfur(RT Na-S)batteries are gaining extensive attention as attractive alternatives for large-scale energy storage,due to low cost and high abundancy of sodium and sulfur in nature.However,the dilemmas regarding soluble polysulfides(Na_(2)Sn,4<n<8)and the inferior reaction kinetics limit their practical application.To address these issues,we report the activated porous carbon fibers(APCF)with small sulfur molecules(S2-4)confined in ultramicropores,to achieve a reversible single-step reaction in RT Na-S batteries.The mechanism is investigated by the in situ UV/vis spectroscopy,which demonstrates Na2S is the only product during the whole discharge process.Moreover,the hierarchical carbon structure can enhance areal sulfur loading without sacrificing the capacity due to thorough contact between electrolyte and sulfur electrode.As a consequence,the APCF electrode with 38 wt%sulfur(APCF-38S)delivers a high initial reversible specific capacity of 1412 mAh g^(-1) and 10.6mAh cm^(-2)(avg.areal sulfur loading:7.5 mg cm^(-2))at 0.1 C(1C=1675 mA g^(-1)),revealing high degree of sulfur utilization.This study provides a new strategy for the development of high areal capacity RT Na-S batteries.

Burning magnesium in carbon dioxide for highly effective phosphate removal

Magnesium oxide was found to have high-phosphate-affinity as an effective component to enhance the phosphate removal ability of common adsorbent materials.However,the currently prepared MgO-based hybrid adsorbents by conventional methods still suffer from the limited low loading of MgO and inferior removal performances,much far away from practical application.In this study,an ingenious carbon coated MgO nanocomposite is designed by directly burning magnesium in CO_(2),a well-known textbook reaction.X-ray diffraction analysis,scanning electron microscope and aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscope demonstrate the sample is well prepared.Consequently,the high content of nanosized MgO combined with defect-rich carbon layer brings unprecedented phosphate removal capacity of 1135.0 mg/g,removal rate of 99% and benign compatibility with coexisting anions and solution pH.Furthermore,the removal mechanism is also investigated in detail by characterizing the sample before and after adsorption.

钠离子电池关键材料研究及工程化探索进展

“双碳”背景下,钠离子电池因成本低廉、安全环保和性能优异等优点受到社会各界的重点关注.低成本的钠离子电池是锂离子电池的有益补充,并将在储能领域展现自己的独特优势,现阶段钠离子电池正处于由实验室探索到产业化推进的关键节点.本文简要介绍了钠离子电池的研究背景,重点介绍了中国科学院物理研究所在钠离子电池关键材料(正极、负极和电解质)、基础理论和工程化探索方面取得的重要进展,对钠离子电池的未来发展方向进行了展望,以期推动钠离子电池的持续发展,加速钠离子电池的商业化应用.