Moisture-Driven Degradation Pathways in Prussian White Cathode Material for Sodium-Ion Batteries

The high-theoretical-capacity (∼170 mAh/g) Prussian white (PW), Na$_{x}$Fe[Fe(CN)$_{6}$]$_{y}$·nH$_{2}$O, is one of the most promising candidates for Na-ion batteries on the cusp of commercialization. However, it has limitations such as high variability of reported stable practical capacity and cycling stability. A key factor that has been identified to affect the performance of PW is water content in the structure. However, the impact of airborne moisture exposure on the electrochemical performance of PW and the chemical mechanisms leading to performance decay have not yet been explored. Herein, we for the first time systematically studied the influence of humidity on the structural and electrochemical properties of monoclinic hydrated (M-PW) and rhombohedral dehydrated (R-PW) Prussian white. It is identified that moisture-driven capacity fading proceeds via two steps, first by sodium from the bulk material reacting with moisture at the surface to form sodium hydroxide and partial oxidation of Fe$^{2+}$ to Fe$^{3+}$. The sodium hydroxide creates a basic environment at the surface of the PW particles, leading to decomposition to Na$_{4}$[Fe(CN)$_{6}$] and iron oxides. Although the first process leads to loss of capacity, which can be reversed, the second stage of degradation is irreversible. Over time, both processes lead to the formation of a passivating surface layer, which prevents both reversible and irreversible capacity losses. This study thus presents a significant step toward understanding the large performance variations presented in the literature for PW. From this study, strategies aimed at limiting moisture-driven degradation can be designed and their efficacy assessed

2021 roadmap for sodium-ion batteries

Abstract: Increasing concerns regarding the sustainability of lithium sources, due to their limited availability and consequent expected price increase, have raised awareness of the importance of developing alternative energy-storage candidates that can sustain the ever-growing energy demand. Furthermore, limitations on the availability of the transition metals used in the manufacturing of cathode materials, together with questionable mining practices, are driving development towards more sustainable elements. Given the uniformly high abundance and cost-effectiveness of sodium, as well as its very suitable redox potential (close to that of lithium), sodium-ion battery technology offers tremendous potential to be a counterpart to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in different application scenarios, such as stationary energy storage and low-cost vehicles. This potential is reflected by the major investments that are being made by industry in a wide variety of markets and in diverse material combinations. Despite the associated advantages of being a drop-in replacement for LIBs, there are remarkable differences in the physicochemical properties between sodium and lithium that give rise to different behaviours, for example, different coordination preferences in compounds, desolvation energies, or solubility of the solid–electrolyte interphase inorganic salt components. This demands a more detailed study of the underlying physical and chemical processes occurring in sodium-ion batteries and allows great scope for groundbreaking advances in the field, from lab-scale to scale-up. This roadmap provides an extensive review by experts in academia and industry of the current state of the art in 2021 and the different research directions and strategies currently underway to improve the performance of sodium-ion batteries. The aim is to provide an opinion with respect to the current challenges and opportunities, from the fundamental properties to the practical applications of this technology

PTMC: A polycarbonate candidate for polymer electrolytes in sodium batteries? : A characterisation of the PTMC–NaFSI system

The poly(trimethylene carbonate)–sodium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide system has been investigated as polymer electrolytes for sodium batteries. The properties of poly(trimethylene carbonate) with salt concentrations ranging from 8.7wt% to 67wt% have been measured by DSC, FTIR, and EIS. Half-cells based on both high-salt and low-salt electrolytes have been tested in order to determine their performance in a realistic environment. The tests reveal two distinct regions in salt concentration and the best-performing electrolytes show a conductivity of 50 μS/cm at 25 °C and 1mS/ cm at 100 °C. The report presents cell data from sodium–prussian blue half-cells with only 10% capacity fade after 80 cycles at 60 °C and additional tests of high-salt cells capable of cycling at reduced temperature with good rate capability

Realization of Sodium-ion Batteries : From Electrode to Electrolyte Materials

Batteries are among the most important technologies required to enable the world to move beyond fossil fuels towards a more efficient and environmentally friendly society based on electricity from renewable sources. Unfortunately, the rapidly increasing number and size of batteries that the world needs in order to perform this paradigm shift is putting enormous strain on the supply of traditional raw materials for batteries, such as lithium and cobalt. Batteries built using only earth abundant elements could guarantee that the supply of energy storage will be available to everyone at reasonable prices. Sodium-ion batteries are among the most popular candidates to achieve battery systems that can provide performance close to or on par with lithium-ion batteries at a lower cost and environmental impact. Although the sodium-ion and lithium-ion batteries share many properties, there is a lot of research required before sodium-ion batteries can compete with the highly optimised lithium-ion batteries. This work explores the stability of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formed on the anode in sodium-ion batteries through means of electrochemical measurements and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The fundamental properties in regards to solubility and electrochemical stability of the surface layer on model anodes as well as on anode materials like hard carbon and tin-phosphide is discussed. The synthesis and electrochemical performance of Prussian white comprising of all earth abundant elements for use as a low-cost and high-performance cathode material is demonstrated. The work also includes several investigations of alternative solvents and salts for electrolytes that have been analysed in conjunction with sodium-ion cells based on hard carbon and Prussian white. The electrolytes studied possess a wide spectrum of different opportunities such as high ionic conductivity, non-flammability, fluorine-free composition and improved low and high-temperature performance

Realization of Sodium-ion Batteries : From Electrode to Electrolyte Materials

Batteries are among the most important technologies required to enable the world to move beyond fossil fuels towards a more efficient and environmentally friendly society based on electricity from renewable sources. Unfortunately, the rapidly increasing number and size of batteries that the world needs in order to perform this paradigm shift is putting enormous strain on the supply of traditional raw materials for batteries, such as lithium and cobalt. Batteries built using only earth abundant elements could guarantee that the supply of energy storage will be available to everyone at reasonable prices. Sodium-ion batteries are among the most popular candidates to achieve battery systems that can provide performance close to or on par with lithium-ion batteries at a lower cost and environmental impact. Although the sodium-ion and lithium-ion batteries share many properties, there is a lot of research required before sodium-ion batteries can compete with the highly optimised lithium-ion batteries. This work explores the stability of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formed on the anode in sodium-ion batteries through means of electrochemical measurements and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The fundamental properties in regards to solubility and electrochemical stability of the surface layer on model anodes as well as on anode materials like hard carbon and tin-phosphide is discussed. The synthesis and electrochemical performance of Prussian white comprising of all earth abundant elements for use as a low-cost and high-performance cathode material is demonstrated. The work also includes several investigations of alternative solvents and salts for electrolytes that have been analysed in conjunction with sodium-ion cells based on hard carbon and Prussian white. The electrolytes studied possess a wide spectrum of different opportunities such as high ionic conductivity, non-flammability, fluorine-free composition and improved low and high-temperature performance

PTMC: A polycarbonate candidate for polymer electrolytes in sodium batteries? : A characterisation of the PTMC–NaFSI system

The poly(trimethylene carbonate)–sodium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide system has been investigated as polymer electrolytes for sodium batteries. The properties of poly(trimethylene carbonate) with salt concentrations ranging from 8.7wt% to 67wt% have been measured by DSC, FTIR, and EIS. Half-cells based on both high-salt and low-salt electrolytes have been tested in order to determine their performance in a realistic environment. The tests reveal two distinct regions in salt concentration and the best-performing electrolytes show a conductivity of 50 μS/cm at 25 °C and 1mS/ cm at 100 °C. The report presents cell data from sodium–prussian blue half-cells with only 10% capacity fade after 80 cycles at 60 °C and additional tests of high-salt cells capable of cycling at reduced temperature with good rate capability

High Voltage Redox-Meditated Flow Batteries with Prussian Blue Solid Booster

This work presents Prussian blue solid boosters for use in high voltage redox-mediated flow batteries (RMFB) based on non-aqueous electrolytes. The system consisted of sodium iodide as a redox mediator in an acetonitrile catholyte containing solid Prussian blue powder. The combination enabled the solid booster utilization in the proposed systems to reach as high as 66 mAh g−1 for hydrated Prussian blue and 110 mAh g−1 for anhydrous rhombohedral Prussian blue in cells with an average potential of about 3 V (vs. Na+/Na). Though the boosted system suffers from capacity fading, it opens up possibilities to develop non-aqueous RMFB with low-cost materials. flow battery; Prussian blue; solid booster; redox-mediated; non-aqueou

An Attempt to Formulate Non-Carbonate Electrolytes for Sodium-Ion Batteries

Non-aqueous carbonate solvents have been the main choice for the development of lithium-ion batteries, and similarly most research on sodium-ion batteries have been performed using carbonate-based solvents. However, the differences between sodium and lithium batteries – in term chemistry/electrochemistry properties as well as electrode materials used – open up opportunities to have a new look at solvents that have attracted little attention as electrolyte solvent. This work investigates properties of a wide range of different solvent classes in the context of sodium-ion battery electrolytes and compares them to the performance of propylene carbonate. The thirteen solvents studied here include one or several members of glymes, carbonates, lactones, esters, pyrrolidones, sulfones, and alkyl phosphates. Out of those, five outperforming solvents of γ-butyrolactone (GBL), γ-valerolactone (GVL), N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), propylene carbonate (PC), and trimethyl phosphate (TMP) were further investigated using additives of ethylene sulfite (ES), vinylene carbonate (VC), fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC), prop-1-ene-1,3-sultone (PES), sulfolane (TMS), tris(trimethylsilyl) phosphite (TTSPI), and sodium bis(oxalato)borate (NaBOB). The solvents TMS and tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether (TEGDME) were tested in 1 : 1 mixtures by volume with the co-solvents; NMP, dimethoxyethane (DME), and TMP. All electrolytes used NaPF6 as the salt. Primary evaluation relied on electrochemical cycling of full-cell sodium-ion batteries consisting of Prussian white cathodes and hard-carbon anodes. Galvanostatic cycling was performed using both two- and three-electrode cells, in addition, cyclic and linear sweep voltammetry was used to further evaluate the electrolyte formulations. Moreover, the resistance was measured on the anode and cathode, using Intermittent current interruption (ICI) technique

Fluorine-Free Electrolytes for Lithium and Sodium Batteries

Fluorinated components in the form of salts, solvents and/or additives are a staple of electrolytes for high-performance Li- and Na-ion batteries, but this comes at a cost. Issues like potential toxicity, corrosivity and environmental concerns have sparked interest in fluorine-free alternatives. Of course, these electrolytes should be able to deliver performance that is on par with the electrolytes being in use today in commercial batteries. This begs the question: Are we there yet? This review outlines why fluorine is regarded as an essential component in battery electrolytes, along with the numerous problems it causes and possible strategies to eliminate it from Li- and Na-ion battery electrolytes. The examples provided demonstrate the possibilities of creating fully fluorine-free electrolytes with similar performance as their fluorinated counterparts, but also that there is still a lot of room for improvement, not least in terms of optimizing the fluorine-free systems independently of their fluorinated predecessors

Stable Cycling of Sodium Metal All-Solid-State Batteries with Polycarbonate-Based Polymer Electrolytes

Solid polymer electrolytes based on high-molecular-weight poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) in combination with NaFSI salt were investigated for application in sodium batteries. The polycarbonate host material proved to be able to dissolve large amounts of salt, at least up to a carbonate:Na+ ratio of 1:1. Combined DSC, conductivity, and FTIR data indicated the formation of a percolating network of salt clusters along with the transition to a percolation-type ion transport mechanism at the highest salt concentrations. While the highest total ionic conductivities were seen at the highest salt concentrations (up to a remarkable 5 x 10(-5) S cm(-1) at 25 degrees C at a 1:1 carbonate:Na+ ratio), the most stable battery performance was seen at a more moderate salt loading of 5:1 carbonate:Na+, reaching >80 cycles at a stable capacity of similar to 90 mAh g(-1) at 60 degrees C in a sodium metal/Prussian blue cell. The results highlight the importance of the choice of salt and salt concentration on electrolyte performance as well as demonstrate the potential of utilizing polycarbonate-based electrolytes in sodium-based energy storage systems