Electrolytes, SEI Formation, and Binders: A Review of Nonelectrode Factors for Sodium-Ion Battery Anodes

Through intense effort in recent years, knowledge of Na-ion batteries has been advanced significantly, pertaining to electrodes. Often, such progress has been accompanied by using a convenient choice of electrolyte or binder. Nevertheless, it has been witnessed that "external" factors to electrodes, such as electrolytes, solid electrolyte interphase, and binders, affect the functions of electrodes profoundly. And generally, certain types of electrodes favor some electrolytes or binders. With a rapidly increasing number of publications in the area, trends in terms of electrolytes and binders are possibly exploitable. Unfortunately, the field has yet to see a review article that devotes itself to these nonelectrode aspects of Na-ion batteries. Here, the gap is filled by conducting a comprehensive review of these nonelectrode external factors, especially by looking into their correlation with electrochemical properties, such as cycle life, and first cycle coulombic efficiency. Not only are the representative reports reviewed, but also quantitative analyses on the database that are constructed are provided. With such analyses, some new data-driven perspectives are postulated, which are of great value to the community.