SusChem: Development and fundamental investigation of high capacity cathode materials for high energy and low cost Na-ion batteries

SusChem：高能低成本钠离子电池高容量正极材料的开发与基础研究

• 批准号: 1706723
• 负责人: Hailong Chen
• 金额: $ 33.93万
• 依托单位: Georgia Tech Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-15 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1706723&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SusChem; Development; fundamental; investigation; capacity; SusChem; Development; fundamental; investigation; capacity

This project addresses energy storage systems for the transportation and the intermittent supply of electricity generated by wind and solar power technologies. One potential solution for these applications is the use of sodium-ion batteries that utilizes widely available and domestic resources. Sodium ion batteries have similar functioning mechanisms as lithium ion batteries but cost less, as sodium is much more abundant than lithium. Currently, the performances of sodium ion batteries are mainly limited by the cathode electrode materials. Most of the existing cathode materials of sodium ion batteries suffer from low capacity and short cycle life. In addition, precious metals such as cobalt and nickel are typically used in these electrode materials, which increases the cost. This project aims to develop low cost and high performance novel cathode materials based on the oxides of one of the most abundant elements, manganese. The cathode materials are designed using strategies derived from fundamental science that allow the cathode to be charge-discharge cycled for hundreds of times with minimal performance degradation. For educational impacts, the project will advance knowledge in the fields of solid state chemistry and electrochemistry. The progress and new findings of the project will be included in undergraduate and graduate courses and disseminated to high school teachers and students through summer programs. The outcomes of the project will expedite the development and commercialization of sodium ion batteries, and therefore significantly improve the sustainability of energy storage technologies. The stability of the crystal structure in cathode electrode materials in continuous electrochemical charge-discharge cycles is key to obtain long cycle life in sodium ion batteries. This project focuses on rational design of novel sodium manganese oxide cathode materials with layered structures. Novel strategies are used to stabilize their structure by doping selected elements into the manganese sites. The doping is expected to effectively delay or mitigate the phase transitions during the sodium intercalation and deintercalation processes, therefore allowing high capacity and long cycle life. The designed materials will be synthesized and electrochemically tested. Multiple advanced characterization methods such as in situ X-ray diffraction will be used to investigate the changes of the crystal structure of the materials during electrochemical cycling. By interpreting the results from synthesis, electrochemical tests, and structure characterizations, insights on the structural stability of the layered cathode materials will be revealed, the hypotheses will be validated, and the materials design strategies will be verified and further refined to guide the development of next generation high performance cathode electrode materials for sodium ion batteries.

该项目解决了风能和太阳能技术产生的运输和间歇性供应的储能系统。这些应用程序的一种潜在解决方案是使用钠离子电池，利用广泛可用的资源和国内资源。钠离子电池具有与锂离子电池相似的功能机制，但成本较小，因为钠比锂更丰富。目前，钠离子电池的性能主要受阴极电极材料的限制。钠离子电池的大多数现有阴极材料都遭受容量较低和循环寿命较短。此外，这些电极材料通常使用贵金属（例如钴和镍），从而增加了成本。该项目旨在根据最丰富的元素之一的氧化物开发低成本和高性能的新型阴极材料。阴极材料是使用源自基本科学的策略设计的，该策略使阴极的电荷放电循环数百次，其性能降低最少。对于教育影响，该项目将提高固态化学和电化学领域的知识。该项目的进度和新发现将包括在本科和研究生课程中，并通过夏季课程传播给高中教师和学生。该项目的结果将加快钠离子电池的开发和商业化，因此可以显着提高储能技术的可持续性。在连续电化学电荷循环中阴极电极材料中晶体结构的稳定性是获得钠离子电池中长周期寿命的关键。该项目着重于具有分层结构的新型锰氧化钠阴极材料的合理设计。新颖的策略用于通过将选定的元素掺入锰部位来稳定其结构。预计掺杂将有效延迟或减轻钠插入过程中的相变，因此可以允许高容量和较长的周期寿命。设计的材料将经过合成并进行电化学测试。多种高级表征方法（例如原位X射线衍射）将用于研究电化学循环期间材料晶体结构的变化。通过解释合成，电化学测试和结构特征的结果，将揭示对分层阴极材料的结构稳定性的见解，将验证假设，并将验证材料设计策略，并进一步提高以指导下一代钠离子造影剂的高性能阴极材料的开发。