Ultrafast and Highly Reversible Sodium Storage in Zinc-Antimony Intermetallic Nanomaterials

Journal Article · Thu Dec 17 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Advanced Functional Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201504461· OSTI ID:1248742

Nie, Anmin ^[1]; Gan, Li-yong ^[2]; Cheng, Yingchun ^[3]; Tao, Xinyong ^[4]; Yuan, Yifei ^[5]; Sharifi-Asl, Soroosh ^[1]; He, Kun ^[1]; Asayesh-Ardakani, Hasti ^[1]; Vasiraju, Venkata ^[6]; Lu, Jun ^[5]; Mashayek, Farzad ^[1]; Klie, Robert ^[7]; Vaddiraju, Sreeram ^[6]; Schwingenschlögl, Udo ^[8]; Shahbazian-Yassar, Reza ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL (United States). Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department
2. Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, (China). Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology of Materials
3. Nanjing Univ. of Technology (China). Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM)
4. Zhejiang Univ. of Technology, Hangzhou (China). College of Materials Science and Engineering
5. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division
6. Texas A&M Univ., College Station, TX (United States). Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering
7. Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL (United States). Department of Physics
8. King Abdullah Univ. of Science and Technology, Thuwal (Saudi Arabia)

The progress on sodium-ion battery technology faces many grand challenges, one of which is the considerably lower rate of sodium insertion/deinsertion in electrode materials due to the larger size of sodium (Na) ions and complicated redox reactions compared to the lithium-ion systems. Here, it is demonstrated that sodium ions can be reversibly stored in Zn-Sb intermetallic nanowires at speeds that can exceed 295 nm s^-1. Remarkably, these values are one to three orders of magnitude higher than the sodiation rate of other nanowires electrochemically tested with in situ transmission electron micro­scopy. It is found that the nanowires display about 161% volume expansion after the first sodiation and then cycle with an 83% reversible volume expansion. Despite their massive expansion, the nanowires can be cycled without any cracking or facture during the ultrafast sodiation/desodiation process. Additionally, most of the phases involved in the sodiation/desodiation process possess high electrical conductivity. More specifically, the NaZnSb exhibits a layered structure, which provides channels for fast Na⁺ diffusion. This observation indicates that Zn-Sb intermetallic nanomaterials offer great promise as high rate and good cycling stability anodic materials for the next generation of sodium-ion batteries.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357; CMMI-1200383; DMR-0959470
• OSTI ID: 1248742
• Journal Information: Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 26, Issue 4; ISSN 1616-301X
• Publisher: Wiley
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English