High Energy Density Sodium-Ion Battery with Industrially Feasible and Air-Stable O3-Type Layered Oxide Cathode

Extensive effort is being made into cathode materials for sodium-ion battery to address several fatal issues, which restrict their future application in practical sodium-ion full cell system, such as their unsatisfactory initial Coulombic efficiency, inherent deficiency of cyclable sodium content, and poor industrial feasibility. A novel air-stable O3-type Na[Li0.05Mn0.50Ni0.30Cu0.10Mg0.05]O-2 is synthesized by a coprecipitation method suitable for mass production followed by high-temperature annealing. The microscale secondary particle, consisting of numerous primary nanocrystals, can efficiently facilitate sodium-ion transport due to the short diffusion distance, and this cathode material also has inherent advantages for practical application because of its superior physical properties. It exhibits a reversible capacity of 172 mA h g(-1) at 0.1 C and remarkable capacity retention of 70.4% after 1000 cycles at 20 C. More importantly, it offers good compatibility with pristine hard carbon as anode in the sodium-ion full cell system, delivering a high energy density of up to 215 W h kg(-1) at 0.1 C and good rate performance. Owing to the high industrial feasibility of the synthesis process, good compatibility with pristine hard carbon anode, and excellent electrochemical performance, it can be considered as a promising active material to promote progress toward sodium-ion battery commercialization.