Recent Progress for Room-Temperature Stationary Sodium-Ion Batteries

In the energy storage field, lithium-ion batteries have been extensively explored as power sources for various types of important applications, such as portable electronic devices, electrical vehicles, etc. Due to the low abundance of lithium in the Earth’s crust (0.0065%), large-scale applications of lithium-ion batteries become questionable, especially if low cost and high efficient recycling technology could not be developed. Alternatively, room-temperature sodium-ion batteries, which were originally investigated in parallel with lithium-ion batteries, have again aroused interest particularly as stationary batteries for large-scale electrical energy storage in the applications of renewable energy and smart grid owing to a large abundance (2.75%) of sodium resources and potentially low cost, for which the demanding on energy densities of the power sources is not so seriously. In this contribution, I will present our recent work on several cathode and anode materials including Na 3 V 2 (PO 4 ) 3 /C [1,2], Li 3 [LiTi 5 ]O 12 [3,4,5], zero-strain P2-Na 0.66 [Li 0.22 Ti 0.78 ]O 2 [6], Na 2 Ti 3 O 7 [7], Na 2 C 8 H 4 O 4 [8] and hard carbon sphere (HCS) [9] as well as a new electrolyte system for room-temperature stationary sodium-ion batteries [10]. Several full cells based on our developed cathode and anode materials will also be demonstrated. References [1] Z. L. Jian, L. Zhao, H. L. Pan, Y.-S. Hu, H. Li, W. Chen, L. Q. Chen, Electrochem. Commun ., 2012, 14, 86-89. [2] Z. L. Jian, W. Z. Han, X. Lu, H. X. Yang, Y.-S. Hu, J. Zhou, Z. B. Zhou, J. Q. Li, W. Chen, D. F. Chen, L. Q. Chen, Adv. Energy Mater. , 2013, 3, 156-160. [3] L. Zhao, H. L. Pan, Y.-S. Hu, H. Li, L. Q. Chen, Chin. Phys. B , 2012, 21, 028201. [4] Y. Sun, L. Zhao, H. L. Pan, X. Lu, L. Gu, Y.-S. Hu, H. Li, M. Armand, Y. Ikuhara, L. Q. Chen, X. J. Huang, Nature Communications , 2013, 4, 1870. [5] X. Q. Yu, H. L. Pan, W. Wan, C. Ma, J. M. Bai, Q. P. Meng, S. N. Ehrlich, Y.-S. Hu, X.-Q. Yang, Nano Lett ., 2013, 13, 4721. [6] Y. S. Wang, X. Q. Yu, S. Y. Xu, J. M. Bai, R. J. Xiao, Y.-S. Hu, H. Li, X.-Q. Yang, L. Q. Chen, X. J. Huang, Nature Communications , 2013, 4, 2365. [7] H. L. Pan, X. Lu, X. Q. Yu, Y.-S. Hu, H, Li, X.-Q. Yang, L. Q. Chen, Adv. Energy Mater ., 2013, 3, 1186-1194. [8] L. Zhao, J. M. Zhao, Y.-S. Hu, H. Li, Z. B. Zhou, M. Armand, L. Q. Chen, Adv. Energy Mater ., 2012, 2, 962-965. [9] J. Z. Yu, Y. S. Wang, H. L. Pan, L. Zhao, Y.-S. Hu, H. Li, L. Q. Chen, in preparation. [10] H. L. Pan, Y.-S. Hu, L. Q. Chen, Energy Environ. Sci ., 2013, 6, 2338-2360. Figure 1 Typical discharge/charge curves of the proposed materials for room-temperature sodium-ion batteries