The evaluation of Sb and SnSb negative electrode materials in full Na-ion cells

Abstract

Na-ion batteries (SIB) represent a realistic and important alternative to commercial Li-ion batteries and are expected to play a significant role in future stationary energy storage systems and E-mobility applications. The search for next-generation negative electrode active materials for Na-ion is critically important, especially to replace hard carbon. Based on previous Na half-cell studies which indicated that both Sb and SnSb demonstrated encouraging performance, we have studied the performance of these materials in full Na-ion cells using a mixed phase O3/P2 layered oxide as the positive electrode. By working on the P/N balance, the Na-ion full cells show encouraging performance even at non-optimized cell balances, with an absence of Na plating, and a high cyclability. For the best performing experimental iteration, we predict a specific energy performance close to 183 W h kg−1 for a Na-ion cell capacity of 49 Ah based on the data on cell A11017.