title: Anode-Free Sodium Battery through in Situ Plating of Sodium Metal.
abstract: Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have been pursued as a more cost-effective and more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), but these advantages come at the expense of energy density. In this work, we demonstrate that the challenge of energy density for sodium chemistries can be overcome through an anode-free architecture enabled by the use of a nanocarbon nucleation layer formed on Al current collectors. Electrochemical studies show this configuration to provide highly stable and efficient plating and stripping of sodium metal over a range of currents up to 4 mA/cm2, sodium loading up to 12 mAh/cm2, and with long-term durability exceeding 1000 cycles at a current of 0.5 mA/cm2. Building upon this anode-free architecture, we demonstrate a full cell using a presodiated pyrite cathode to achieve energy densities of ∼400 Wh/kg, far surpassing recent reports on SIBs and even the theoretical maximum for LIB technology (387 Wh/kg for LiCoO2/graphite cells) while still relying on naturally abundant raw materials and cost-effective aqueous processing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University , Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States.
authors.forename: Adam P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Cohn
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Materials Science Program, Vanderbilt University , Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States.
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6042-5295
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Muralidharan
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University , Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Materials Science Program, Vanderbilt University , Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Share
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University , Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States.|Interdisciplinary Materials Science Program, Vanderbilt University , Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States.
authors.forename: Cary L
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4700-0852
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Pint
keywords: Metal anode; anode-free; current collector; energy density; iron pyrite; sodium battery