EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

The most common energy storage system for the portable electronic and automotive markets are lithium-ion batteries which demand is constantly growing. However, because of the low abundance of lithium in the earth’s crust the search for an alternative is on. One of them could be sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), especially for a large-scale energy storage system. Nevertheless, the lack of anode material for SIBs constitutes a bottleneck issue for the application of Na-ion batteries. From this point of view, antimony-based materials, working via alloying reaction attract considerable research attention as a negative electrode. Their advantages include high theoretical capacity (660 mAh/g), high conductivity, and ease of the formation of the intermetallic compounds with sodium. However, they suffer from volume changes (around 293% during alloying/dealloying) which impede the overall durability of the electrode layers, ion transport, and electronic conductivity.
Within this work, we present the comprehensive investigation aiming to engineer Sb-carbon composite materials with enhanced structural stability and electrochemical performance. We analyze the impact of the morphology of selected types of carbon additives and their amount on the electrochemical properties of the electrodes. By thorough scanning electron microscopy investigation, we verified the evolution of the morphology of electrodes at different states of charge and after long-term cycling. The electrochemical properties of materials were verified by means of the standard charge/discharge cycles, rate capability tests, XRD in situ measurements, CV voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.