High-performance graphene/disodium terephthalate electrodes with ether electrolyte for exceptional cooperative sodiation/desodiation

Organic electrode materials are usually highly soluble, less conductive and highly irreversible. These drawbacks result in the low utilization and poor performance of organic materials in sodium-ion batteries. In this work, a self-assembled graphene/disodium terephthalate (Na2TP) electrode with exceptionally high loadings of Na2TP (up to 88.60%) shows dramatically enhanced electrical conductivity and sodium storage performances in ether electrolytes. The strong confinement of Na2TP by graphene and the interfacial modification by ether combinationally improve the kinetics of sodiation/desodiation. This cooperative electrode/electrolyte configuration achieves a high reversible capacity of 245 mAh g−1 with an extraordinary initial Coulombic efficiency of 82.3%, which outperforms the state-of-the-art of organic anodes.