A Stable Room-temperature Sodium-sulfur Battery

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2016 Jun 10

PMID 27277345

Citations 44

Authors

Shuya Wei

Shaomao Xu

Akanksha Agrawral

Snehashis Choudhury

Yingying Lu

Zhengyuan Tu

Lin Ma

Lynden A Archer

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

High-energy rechargeable batteries based on earth-abundant materials are important for mobile and stationary storage technologies. Rechargeable sodium-sulfur batteries able to operate stably at room temperature are among the most sought-after platforms because such cells take advantage of a two-electron-redox process to achieve high storage capacity from inexpensive electrode materials. Here we report a room-temperature sodium-sulfur battery that uses a microporous carbon-sulfur composite cathode, and a liquid carbonate electrolyte containing the ionic liquid 1-methyl-3-propylimidazolium-chlorate tethered to SiO2 nanoparticles. We show that these cells can cycle stably at a rate of 0.5 C (1 C=1675, mAh g(-1)) with 600 mAh g(-1) reversible capacity and nearly 100% Coulombic efficiency. By means of spectroscopic and electrochemical analysis, we find that the particles form a sodium-ion conductive film on the anode, which stabilizes deposition of sodium. We also find that sulfur remains interred in the carbon pores and undergo solid-state electrochemical reactions with sodium ions.

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