Abstract
Low cost, highly efficient and safe devices for energy storage have long been desired in our society. Among these devices, electrochemical batteries with alkali metal anodes have attracted worldwide attention. However, the practical application of such systems is limited by dendrite formation and low cycling efficiency of alkali metals. Here we report a class of liquid anodes fabricated by dissolving sodium metal into a mixed solution of biphenyl and ethers. Such liquid anodes are highly safe and have a low redox potential of 0.09 V versus sodium, exhibiting a high conductivity of 1.2 × 10−2 S cm−1. When coupled with polysulfides dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide as the cathode, a battery is demonstrated to sustain over 3,500 cycles without measureable capacity loss at room temperature. This work provides a base for exploring a family of liquid anodes for rechargeable batteries that potentially meet the requirements for grid-scale electrical energy storage.
Highlights
Low cost, highly efficient and safe devices for energy storage have long been desired in our society
The obtained liquid anodes possess a low potential of 0.09 V versus Na, a high conductivity of 1.2 Â 10 À 2 S cm À 1 at room temperature and are safer than Na metal anode
We have demonstrated the use of a class of Na-BPEther liquid anode in room temperature rechargeable sodium beta-alumina batteries
Summary
Highly efficient and safe devices for energy storage have long been desired in our society. We report a class of liquid anodes fabricated by dissolving sodium metal into a mixed solution of biphenyl and ethers Such liquid anodes are highly safe and have a low redox potential of 0.09 V versus sodium, exhibiting a high conductivity of 1.2 Â 10 À 2 S cm À 1. Molten or liquid alkali metals have been proposed, for example, in high-temperature sodium beta-alumina batteries, especially, the best-known sodium–sulfur (Na–S) and sodium–metal halide batteries They need to be operated at a high temperature (300–350 °C) to decrease the interfacial resistance and to obtain better wettability between the alkali metals and solid electrolytes[13,14,15,16,17]. A rechargeable sodium beta-alumina battery is fabricated using the liquid anode and polysulfide cathode, presenting superior cycling performance at room temperature
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