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Title: Designing solid-liquid interphases for sodium batteries

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [5];  [2];  [1]
  1. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
  2. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). Dept. of Physics
  3. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). School of Applied and Engineering Physics
  4. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
  5. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). School of Applied and Engineering Physics; Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). Kavli Inst. at Cornell for Nanoscale Science

Secondary batteries based on earth-abundant sodium metal anodes are desirable for both stationary and portable electrical energy storage. Room-temperature sodium metal batteries are impractical today because morphological instability during recharge drives rough, dendritic electrodeposition. Chemical instability of liquid electrolytes also leads to premature cell failure as a result of parasitic reactions with the anode. Here we use joint density-functional theoretical analysis to show that the surface diffusion barrier for sodium ion transport is a sensitive function of the chemistry of solid–electrolyte interphase. In particular, we find that a sodium bromide interphase presents an exceptionally low energy barrier to ion transport, comparable to that of metallic magnesium. We evaluate this prediction by means of electrochemical measurements and direct visualization studies. These experiments reveal an approximately three-fold reduction in activation energy for ion transport at a sodium bromide interphase. Direct visualization of sodium electrodeposition confirms large improvements in stability of sodium deposition at sodium bromide-rich interphases.

Research Organization:
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AR0000750; DMR-1120296; DMR-1654596
OSTI ID:
1417017
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 280 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (27)

A Game Changer: Functional Nano/Micromaterials for Smart Rechargeable Batteries journal August 2019
Ionic Liquids and Organic Ionic Plastic Crystals: Advanced Electrolytes for Safer High Performance Sodium Energy Storage Technologies journal May 2018
Building Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Interphases for Fast Interfacial Transport in Rechargeable Metal Batteries journal December 2017
Building Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Interphases for Fast Interfacial Transport in Rechargeable Metal Batteries journal December 2017
Elemental Sulfur Nanoparticles Chemically Boost the Sodium Storage Performance of MoS 2 /rGO Anodes journal August 2018
Mitigating concentration polarization for highly reversible plating/stripping electrochemistry: Li versus Na journal January 2019
Conductive carbon nanofiber interpenetrated graphene architecture for ultra-stable sodium ion battery journal September 2019
Facile Stabilization of the Sodium Metal Anode with Additives: Unexpected Key Role of Sodium Polysulfide and Adverse Effect of Sodium Nitrate journal May 2018
Stable Na Metal Anode Enabled by a Reinforced Multistructural SEI Layer journal April 2019
High-Performance Sodium Metal Anodes Enabled by a Bifunctional Potassium Salt journal May 2018
Can Hybrid Na–Air Batteries Outperform Nonaqueous Na–O 2 Batteries? journal January 2020
Facile Stabilization of the Sodium Metal Anode with Additives: Unexpected Key Role of Sodium Polysulfide and Adverse Effect of Sodium Nitrate journal May 2018
Sulfuryl chloride as a functional additive towards dendrite-free and long-life Li metal anodes journal January 2019
Emerging Electron Microscopy Techniques for Probing Functional Interfaces in Energy Materials journal October 2019
Enabling reversible redox reactions in electrochemical cells using protected LiAl intermetallics as lithium metal anodes journal October 2019
High-Performance Sodium Metal Anodes Enabled by a Bifunctional Potassium Salt journal May 2018
Ion–Solvent Complexes Promote Gas Evolution from Electrolytes on a Sodium Metal Anode journal January 2018
Ultrathin lead bromide perovskite platelets spotted with europium( ii ) bromide dots journal January 2019
In situ formation of highly controllable and stable Na 3 PS 4 as a protective layer for Na metal anode journal January 2019
Tin nanoparticles embedded in a carbon buffer layer as preferential nucleation sites for stable sodium metal anodes journal January 2019
Emerging Electron Microscopy Techniques for Probing Functional Interfaces in Energy Materials journal January 2020
Boosting the Reversibility of Sodium Metal Anode via Heteroatom‐Doped Hollow Carbon Fibers journal August 2019
Evolution of the electrochemical interface in sodium ion batteries with ether electrolytes journal February 2019
Revealing the chemistry of an anode-passivating electrolyte salt for high rate and stable sodium metal batteries journal January 2018
Author Correction: Evolution of the electrochemical interface in sodium ion batteries with ether electrolytes journal March 2019
Nip the Sodium Dendrites in the Bud on Planar Doped Graphene in Liquid/Gel Electrolytes journal January 2019
Design Strategies to Enable the Efficient Use of Sodium Metal Anodes in High‐Energy Batteries journal October 2019

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