The chance of sodium titanate anode for the practical sodium-ion batteries

Supporting sustainable green energy systems,there is a big demand gap for grid energy storage.Sodiumion storage,especially sodium-ion batteries(SIBs),have advanced significantly and are now emerging as a feasible alternative to the lithium-ion batteries equivalent in large-scale energy storage due to their natural abundance and prospective inexpensive cost.Among various anode materials of SIBs,beneficial properties,such as outstanding stability,great abundance,and environmental friendliness,make sodium titanates(NTOs),one of the most promising anode materials for the rechargeable SIBs.Nevertheless,there are still enormous challenges in application of NTO,owing to its low intrinsic electronic conductivity and collapse of structure.The research on NTOs is still in its infancy;there are few conclusive reviews about the specific function of various modification methods.Herein,we summarize the typical strategies of optimization and analysis the fine structures and fabrication methods of NTO anodes combined with the application of in situ characterization techniques.Our work provides effective guidance for promoting the continuous development,equipping NTOs in safety-critical systems,and lays a foundation for the development of NTO-anode materials in SIBs.

Self-Adaptive and Electric Field-Driven Protective Layer with Anchored Lithium Deposition Enable Stable Lithium Metal Anode

Lithium metal battery has great development potential because of its lowest electrochemical potential and highest theoretical capacity.However,the uneven deposition of Li^(+)flux in the process of deposition and stripping induces the vigorous growth of lithium dendrites,which results in severely battery performance degradation and serious safety hazards.Here,the tetragonal BaTiO3 polarized by high voltage corona was used to build an artificial protective layer with uniform positive polarization direction,which enables uniform Li^(+)flux.In contrast to traditional strategies of using protective layer,which can guide the uniform deposition of lithium metal.The ferroelectric protective layer can accurately anchor the Li^(+)and achieve bottom deposition of lithium due to the automatic adjustment of the electric field.Simultaneously,the huge volume changes caused by Li^(+)migration change of the lithium metal anode during charging and discharging is functioned to excite the piezoelectric effect of the protective layer,and achieve seamless dynamic tuning of lithium deposition/stripping.This dynamic effect can accurately anchor and capture Li^(+).Finally,the layer-modified Li anode enables reversible Li plating/stripping over 1500 h at 1 mA cm^(-2)and 50℃in symmetric cells.In addition,the assembled Li-S full cell exhibits over 300 cycles with N/P≈1.35.This work provides a new perspective on the uniform Li^(+)flux at the Li-anode interface of the artificial protective layer.