Delocalized Electron System Enables Stable NASICON Cathode for Sodium-Ion Batteries
The NASICON-type Na<sub>3</sub>MnTi(PO<sub>4</sub>)<sub>3</sub> is a promising sodium-ion battery cathode material due to its considerable theoretical specific capacity. However, its practical implementation is hindered by inferior kinetics and a stepwise phase transition. Here, we show a multi-<i>d</i>-electron approach for synthesizing a novel NASICON-type material, Na<sub>3.5</sub>V<sub>0.5</sub>Mn<sub>0.5</sub>Cr<sub>0.5</sub>Ti<sub>0.5</sub>(PO<sub>4</sub>)<sub>3</sub>, with a delocalized electron system that facilitates electrochemical kinetics and a stable single-phase reaction mechanism with minimal volume change (1.8%). This effectively breaks the performance trade-off among high-rate capability (98.9 mAh g<sup>-1</sup> at 40 C), long-term cycling (88.3% after 10,000 cycles at 40 C), and operation over a temperature range of -40 to 50 °C. Importantly, the pouch-type full cell demonstrates its practical feasibility by achieving 85.2% capacity retention after 500 cycles. This study sheds new light on delocalized electron-driven reaction dynamics and the modulation of phase transitions to realize a high-performance NASICON cathode for sodium-ion batteries.
Authors
- Yan Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8045-6926)
- Zhaoshi Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3177-0513)
- Muqin Wang
- Mingkui Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4516-2500)
- Yali Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0107-4274)
- Pengkun Gao
- Jiandong Zhang
Institutions
- EA Technology (GB)
- Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (CN)
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nano Letters
- Published
- 2025-12-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c04750
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Advancements in Battery Materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.92