Kinetic properties of sodium-ion transfer at the interface between graphitic materials and organic electrolyte solutions

Abstract Graphitic materials cannot be applied for the negative electrode of sodium-ion battery because the reversible capacities of graphite are anomalously small. To promote electrochemical sodium-ion intercalation into graphitic materials, the interfacial sodium-ion transfer reaction at the interface between graphitized carbon nanosphere (GCNS) electrode and organic electrolyte solutions was investigated. The interfacial lithium-ion transfer reaction was also evaluated for the comparison to the sodium-ion transfer. From the cyclic voltammograms, both lithium-ion and sodium-ion can reversibly intercalate into/from GCNS in all of the electrolytes used here. In the Nyquist plots, the semi-circles at the high frequency region derived from the Solid Electrolyte Interphase (SEI) resistance and the semi-circles at the middle frequency region owing to the charge-transfer resistance appeared. The activation energies of both lithium-ion and sodium-ion transfer resistances were measured. The values of activation energies of the interfacial lithium-ion transfer suggested that the interfacial lithium-ion transfer was influenced by the interaction between lithium-ion and solvents, anions or SEI. The activation energies of the interfacial sodium-ion transfer were larger than the expected values of interfacial sodium-ion transfer based on the week Lewis acidity of sodium-ion. In addition, the activation energies of interfacial sodium-ion transfer in dilute FEC-based electrolytes were smaller than those in concentrated electrolytes. The activation energies of the interfacial lithium/sodium-ion transfer of CNS-1100 in FEC-based electrolyte solutions were almost the same as those of CNS-2900, indicating that the mechanism of interfacial charge-transfer reaction seemed to be the same for highly graphitized materials and low-graphitized materials each other. Graphic abstract