Volume 63, Issue 14 e202319427
Research Article

Making Plasticized Polymer Electrolytes Stable Against Sodium Metal for High-Energy Solid-State Sodium Batteries

Dr. Peichao Zou

Dr. Peichao Zou

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California, 92697 United States

P. Zou, C. Wang, and Y. He contributed equally to this work.

Contribution: Data curation (lead), Formal analysis (lead), ​Investigation (lead), Methodology (lead), Visualization (lead), Writing - original draft (lead)

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Dr. Chunyang Wang

Dr. Chunyang Wang

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California, 92697 United States

P. Zou, C. Wang, and Y. He contributed equally to this work.

Contribution: Data curation (equal), Formal analysis (equal), ​Investigation (equal), Writing - original draft (equal)

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Dr. Yubin He

Dr. Yubin He

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California, 92697 United States

P. Zou, C. Wang, and Y. He contributed equally to this work.

Contribution: Data curation (equal), ​Investigation (equal), Methodology (equal), Writing - original draft (equal)

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Prof. Huolin L. Xin

Corresponding Author

Prof. Huolin L. Xin

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California, 92697 United States

Contribution: Conceptualization (lead), Project administration (lead), Resources (lead), Supervision (lead), Writing - review & editing (lead)

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First published: 14 February 2024
Citations: 18

Graphical Abstract

A new plasticized polymer electrolyte integrated with fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) additive was reported to address the interface instability issue existing in sodium metal batteries. Impressively, dome-like Na0 nucleation/growth with thin, amorphous, and fluoride-rich SEIs was identified, enabling excellent long-term cycling stability in Na//Na3V2(PO4)3 pouch cells (93.1 % capacity retention after 250 cycles at C/3) at room temperature.

Abstract

Solid polymer electrolytes based on plastic crystals are promising for solid-state sodium metal (Na0) batteries, yet their practicality has been hindered by the notorious Na0-electrolyte interface instability issue, the underlying cause of which remains poorly understood. Here, by leveraging a model plasticized polymer electrolyte based on conventional succinonitrile plastic crystals, we uncover its failure origin in Na0 batteries is associated with the formation of a thick and non-uniform solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and whiskery Na0 nucleation/growth. Furthermore, we design a new additive-embedded plasticized polymer electrolyte to manipulate the Na0 deposition and SEI formulation. For the first time, we demonstrate that introducing fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) additive into the succinonitrile-plasticized polymer electrolyte can effectively protect Na0 against interfacial corrosion by facilitating the growth of dome-like Na0 with thin, amorphous, and fluorine-rich SEIs, thus enabling significantly improved performances of Na//Na symmetric cells (1,800 h at 0.5 mA cm−2) and Na//Na3V2(PO4)3 full cells (93.0 % capacity retention after 1,200 cycles at 1 C rate in coin cells and 93.1 % capacity retention after 250 cycles at C/3 in pouch cells at room temperature). Our work provides valuable insights into the interfacial failure of plasticized polymer electrolytes and offers a promising solution to resolving the interfacial instability issue.

Conflict of interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the supplementary material of this article.

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