Pusan Researchers Develop Sodium-Ion Battery Anode to End Lithium Dependence

• Scientists from Korea as well as United States have actually lately developed pyrolyzed quinacridones that exhibit high sodium-ion storage performance as well as cycling stability.
• Besides having physicochemical properties similar to that of lithium, sodium is both sustainable and cost-effective.

Pusan National University, South Korea, has developed an interesting research study in which researchers have developed sodium-ion battery anode that is being claimed as highly efficient for the storage of power.

Pusan said that lithium is expensive and limited, necessitating the development of efficient energy storage space systems beyond lithium-ion batteries and sodium is an appealing candidate. Nonetheless, sodium ions, being big as well as sluggish, hamper sodium-ion battery (SIB) anode performance. Researchers from Korea and also U.S.A. have actually just recently developed pyrolyzed quinacridones, new carbonaceous SIB anode products, that are efficient, conveniently prepared, and exhibit outstanding electrochemical properties, including high sodium-ion storage performance as well as cycling stability.

Pusan stated that because climate adjustment, it is needed to minimize carbon emissions by making use of renewable resource sources and also developing efficient power storage space systems. Lithium-ion batteries are connected with high expense and limited supply of lithium. To this end, scientists have suggested sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) as a possible candidate.

Pusan stated that besides having physicochemical properties similar to that of lithium, sodium is both sustainable and cost-effective. Nonetheless, its ions are large with sluggish diffusion kinetics, hindering their accommodation within the carbon microstructures of the commercialized graphite anodes. As a result, SIB anodes struggle with structural instability and also poor storage space performance. Hereof, carbonaceous products doped with heteroatoms are showing promise. Nevertheless, their preparation is complicated, expensive, as well as time-consuming.

A group of scientists, led by Professor Seung Geol Lee from Pusan, utilized quinacridones as precursors to prepare carbonaceous SIB anodes. Professor Geol said, "Organic pigments such as quinacridones have a selection of frameworks and functional groups. Consequently, they develop various thermal decomposition habits and microstructures. When utilized as a precursor for power storage materials, pyrolyzed quinacridones can considerably vary the performance of secondary batteries. Therefore, it is possible to execute a highly efficient battery by managing the framework of organic pigments precursor." clarifies the professor.

The study will certainly be published in the Chemical Engineering Journal in February. The researchers concentrated on 2,9-dimethylquinacridone (2,9-DMQA) in their research study that has a parallel molecular packing setup. Upon pyrolysis (thermal decomposition) at 600 ° C, 2,9-DMQA turned from reddish to black with a high char yield of 61%. The scientists next performed an extensive experimental analysis to describe the underlying pyrolysis mechanism.

Technological breakthrough

Pusan researchers suggested that the decomposition of methyl substituents generates cost-free radicals at 450 ° C, which develop polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with a longitudinally expanded microstructure resulting from bond linking along the parallel packaging direction. Additionally, nitrogen- and oxygen-containing functional groups in 2,9-DMQA launched gases, developing disordered domain names in the microstructure. In contrast, pyrolyzed unsubstituted quinacridone developed extremely aggregated frameworks. This suggested that the morphological development was significantly impacted by the crystal orientation of the precursor.

In addition, 2,9-DMQA pyrolyzed at 600 ° C exhibited a high price capability (290 mAh/g at 0.05 A/g) and superb cycle stability (134 mAh/g at 5 A/g for 1000 cycles) as an SIB anode, stated the Pusan research study. The nitrogen- and also oxygen-containing groups further enhanced battery storage by means of surface confinement and also interlayer distance increment.

Prof. Lee claimed, "Organic pigments such as quinacridones can be made use of as anode materials in sodium-ion batteries. Offered the high efficiency, they will offer an efficient technique for automation of massive power storage systems."