Investigation of physical and electrochemical properties of Ni-doped Tunnel/P2 hybrid Na0.44MnO2 cathode material for sodium-ion batteries

The increasing demand for energy in recent years has accelerated the efforts to increase the efficiency of energy storage systems. Although lithium-ion batteries are very popular in energy storage systems, the dramatic increase in costs due to the decrease in lithium resources has greatly increased the interest in sodium-ion batteries. Na0.44MnO2 has recently received increasing attention due to the fact that the tunnel structures in the crystal structure are suitable for the diffusion of Na ions. However, rapid structural degradation is an important problem that must be overcome to move into practical applications. In this study, the tunnel/P2 hybrid type Na0.44MnO2 was synthesized by a one-step heat treatment with the Ni substitution to Mn sites for improving cyclic performance. It was demonstrated by various physical analyses, that biphasic hybrid material starts forming with Ni substitution, and Ni occupied the Mn sites in the P2 phase. Electrochemical measurements provide that after 100 cycles at 0.3C, while Na0.44MnO2 has 77% capacity retention, 1% and 5% Ni substituted samples have 86.4% and 77.3%, respectively. The results show that tunnel-P2 hybrid cathode materials can be developed for practical applications in sodium-ion batteries.