Tuesday, 31 May 2022: 08:20
West Meeting Room 210 (Vancouver Convention Center)
All-solid-state sodium metal batteries are considered as the next generation batteries to power the portable electronic devices, electric vehicles and large-scale grid, owing to their high-safety and high energy-density. As the most important candidate, NASICON-type ceramic electrolyte is commonly applied in the all-solid-state sodium metal batteries, due to its high ionic conductivity, wide electrochemical window and relatively easy fabrication process. However, the large interfacial resistance between the ceramic electrolyte and the metallic sodium is known to limit the critical current density (CCD) of the cell. Recently, we have developed a simple and cost-effective annealing process to prepare the ceramic electrolyte and improve its interface with the metallic sodium. With the removal of surface contamination as well as some surface modification, the annealed ceramic electrolyte shows an extremely low interfacial resistance of 11 Ω cm2 and a high CCD of 0.9 mA cm-2. To further enhance the cyclic performance of the all-solid-state sodium metal batteries, especially with the polymer-based solid-state electrolytes, we engineer the electrolyte-electrode interfaces with ferroelectric materials. An extraordinarily high discharge capacity of 160.3 mAh g-1, with 97.4% in retention, is achieved in our ferroelectric-engineered all-solid-state sodium metal cell after 165 cycles at room temperature. Furthermore, outstanding stability is demonstrated in the ferroelectric engineered cells, and high discharge capacity retention of 86.0% is achieved in the engineered cell over 180 full charge/discharge cycles, even though the cell has been suspended for 2 months during cycling. Our work paves the way to the commercialization of high-safety, high-energy-density and high-stability all-solid-state sodium metal batteries.