Search

Sodium‐ion batteries have attracted interest as an alternative to lithium‐ion batteries because of the abundance and cost effectiveness of sodium. However, suitable anode materials with high‐rate and stable cycling performance are still needed to promote their practical application. Herein, three‐dimensional Na2Ti3O7 nanowire arrays with enriched surface vacancies endowed by phosphorus doping are reported. As anodes for sodium‐ion batteries, they deliver a high specific capacity of 290 mA h g−1at 0.2 C, good rate capability (50 mA h g−1at 20 C), and stable cycling capability (98 % capacity retention over 3100 cycles at 20 C). The superior electrochemical performance is attributed to the synergistic effects of the nanowire arrays and phosphorus doping. The rational structure can provide convenient channels to facilitate ion/electron transport and improve the capacitive contributions. Moreover, the phosphorus‐doping‐induced surface vacancies not only provide more active sites but also improve the intrinsic electrical conductivity of Na2Ti3O7, which will enable electrode materials with excellent sodium storage performance. This work may provide an effective strategy for the synthesis of other anode materials with fast electrochemical reaction kinetics and good sodium storage performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With the rapidly growing demand for low‐cost and safe energy storage, the advanced battery concepts have triggered strong interests beyond the state‐of‐the‐art Li‐ion batteries (LIBs). Herein, a novel hybrid Li/Na‐ion full battery (HLNIB) composed of the high‐energy and lithium‐free Na3V2(PO4)2O2F (NVPOF) cathode and commercial graphite anode mesophase carbon micro beads is for the first time designed. The assembled HLNIBs exhibit two high working voltage at about 4.05 and 3.69 V with a specific capacity of 112.7 mA h g−1. Its energy density can reach up to 328 W h kg−1 calculated from the total mass of both cathode and anode materials. Moreover, the HLNIBs show outstanding high‐rate capability, long‐term cycle life, and excellent low‐temperature performance. In addition, the reaction kinetics and Li/Na‐insertion/extraction mechanism into/out NVPOF is preliminarily investigated by the galvanostatic intermittent titration technique and ex situ X‐ray diffraction. This work provides a new and profound direction to develop advanced hybrid batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a promising anode candidate for lithium ion batteries (LIBs), MnO has attracted wide attentions owing to its theoretically high Li-storage capacity, lower working voltage and polarization than other oxides, low cost, environmental friendliness, and abundant resources. Herein, we develop a facile and low-cost strategy to fabricate a unique porous MnO@N-doped carbon (MnO@N-C) nanotube and demonstrate its outstanding Li-storage properties as anode material for LIBs. Benefiting from its unique 1D porous features, the prepared MnO@N-C electrodes exhibit high reversible specific capacity (971.8 mAh g −1  at 0.1 A g −1 ), superb high-rate capability (359.5 mAh g −1  at 30 A g −1 ) and remarkable cycling stability (441.5 mA h g −1 after 3500 cycles at 10 A g −1 ). Such superior electrochemical performance should be due to the high conductivity and protection effects of N-doped carbon layer, and adequate internal voids in the MnO@N-C to effectively accommodate the volume changes of MnO during cycling. In addition, it is also disclosed that the high capacity contribution arises from the pseudocapacitive charge storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]