Sodium-ion batteries are a cheaper and more abundant alternative to lithium-ion batteries, and they could power future electric cars and grid storage if they could be made to store enough energy. NaNi1/3Fe1/3Mn1/3O2 is a material used for sodium-ion batteries, but it suffers from various constraints. In research published in Carbon Energy , scientists used what's called a valence engineering strategy to modify the oxidation state of this material so that it is both higher energy and more practical.
The modification led to a sodium-ion battery that lasts longer, works well in wide temperature ranges, and doesn't significantly degrade when exposed to air and moisture.
"We discovered that by simply breaking the traditional Ni/Mn stoichiometric symmetry than the usual balanced recipe, the iron—or Fe—suddenly becomes much more active and delivers more electron transfer numbers. As a result, our material can offer 596 Wh kg-1 based on cathode mass, which is 15% more than the NaNi1/3Fe1/3Mn1/3O2 benchmark," said co-corresponding Chenlong Dong, PhD, an associate professor at Tianjin University of Technology, in China.
URL upon publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cey2.70142
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