All climate and fast-charging sodium-ion pouch cell

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Energy Storage

Background:

• Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are crucial for large-scale energy storage.
• Hard carbon anodes in SIBs suffer from sodium dendrites and poor temperature performance due to low potential plateaus and unstable SEI.
• Developing stable and high-performance SIBs is essential for grid-scale applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a dendrite-free, wide temperature range, and fast-charging SIB system.
• To overcome the limitations of hard carbon anodes in SIBs.
• To enhance the safety and performance of SIBs for energy storage.

Main Methods:

• Utilized NASICON-type Na3V2(PO4)3 (NVP) as cathode and NaTi2(PO4)3 (NTP) as anode.
• Employed an ether electrolyte for its SEI-free nature and higher boiling point.
• Fabricated and tested a 1.2 Ah NTP||NVP pouch cell.

Main Results:

• The NTP||NVP cell demonstrated dendrite-free operation.
• Achieved excellent fast-charging capability with 89.7% capacity retention after 1000 cycles at 10 C.
• Exhibited a wide operating temperature range from -40 °C to 60 °C.

Conclusions:

• The proposed SIB system offers high structural stability and fast ion diffusion.
• The use of NVP and NTP electrodes with ether electrolyte enhances battery safety and performance.
• This advancement accelerates the development of practical, high-performance SIBs for grid-scale energy storage.