《Nitrofullerene as an Electrolyte-compatible Additive for High-performance Sodium Metal Batteries》

Sodium metal is expected to be used in energy storage equipment with high energy density due to its advantages of low cost, low redox potential and high theoretical specific capacity. However, the unstable SEI will seriously reduce the coulomb efficiency and produce dead sodium, resulting in battery failure. At the same time, uneven sodium deposits can produce dendrites that puncture the diaphragm and lead to a short circuit inside the battery, causing serious safety problems. The electrolyte additive is a simple and effective modification strategy among the various sodium negative electrode modification strategies reported. However, most electrolyte additives only work in specific electrolytes (carbonates or ethers), which is a challenge for the large-scale application of sodium metal batteries. Therefore, the development of additives with high electrolyte compatibility plays an important role in improving the application of sodium metal batteries. Through reasonable molecular structure design, nitrocellerene with excellent solubility was synthesized as electrolyte additive for sodium metal anode protection. Nitrofullerene as an electrolyte additive not only showed excellent electrolyte compatibility, but also effectively induced uniform deposition/stripping of sodium ions and inhibited the growth of sodium dendrites. The idea of using fullerene derivatives as electrolyte additives not only provides a feasible scheme for the development of high performance sodium metal batteries, but also greatly expands the application range of fullerene-based materials.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211285521006510