Improving the fast-charging capability of NbWO-based Li-ion batteries
The discovery of Nb-W-O materials years ago marks the milestone of charging a lithium-ion battery in minutes. Nevertheless, for many applications, charging lithium-ion battery within one minute is urgently demanded, the bottleneck of which largely lies in the lack of fundamental understanding of Li<sup>+</sup> storage mechanisms in these materials. Herein, by visualizing Li<sup>+</sup> intercalated into representative Nb<sub>16</sub>W<sub>5</sub>O<sub>55</sub>, we find that the fast-charging nature of such material originates from an interesting rate-dependent lattice relaxation process associated with the Jahn-Teller effect. Furthermore, in situ electron microscopy further reveals a directional, [010]-preferred Li<sup>+</sup> transport mechanism in Nb<sub>16</sub>W<sub>5</sub>O<sub>55</sub> crystals being the "bottleneck" toward fast charging that deprives the entry of any desolvated Li<sup>+</sup> through the prevailing non-(010) surfaces. Hence, we propose a machine learning-assisted interface engineering strategy to swiftly collect desolvated Li<sup>+</sup> and relocate them to (010) surfaces for their fast intercalation. As a result, a capacity of ≈ 116 mAh g<sup>-1</sup> (68.5% of the theoretical capacity) at 80 C (45 s) is achieved when coupled with a Li negative electrode.
Authors
- Yifei Yuan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2360-8794)
- Xuemei Zeng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4885-4788)
- Wuxin Sha
- Kun He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5504-5458)
- Khalil Amine (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9206-3719)
- Anmin Nie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0180-1366)
- Xinyue Tang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2190-598X)
- Xiaobin Liao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2455-832X)
- Qingqing Ren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2208-0947)
- Weiyuan Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7035-2210)
- Tongchao Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6010-3891)
- Chi Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2022-2121)
- Shun Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5305-5134)
- Penghui Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7257-6381)
- Wenjun Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4397-1363)
- Jun Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8527-6035)
- Yaqing Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0892-4542)
Institutions
- Argonne National Laboratory (US)
- Wenzhou University (CN)
- Wuhan University of Technology (CN)
- Yanshan University (CN)
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Southeast University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-03-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57576-1
- Citations
- 19
- Primary Topic
- Advancements in Battery Materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 13.88
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- University of Chicago
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Office of Science
- Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- Vehicle Technologies Office
- Office of Energy Efficiency
- Argonne National Laboratory