posted on 2020-03-31, 01:13authored byXiaofei Hu, Paul Hyunggyu Joo, Edward Matios, Chuanlong Wang, Jianmin Luo, Kesong Yang, Weiyang Li
All-solid-state
sodium–carbon dioxide (Na-CO2) battery is an emerging
technology that effectively utilizes the
greenhouse gas, CO2, for energy storage with the virtues
of minimized electrolyte leakage and suppressed Na dendrite growth
for the Na metal anode. However, the sluggish reduction/evolution
reactions of CO2 on the solid electrolyte/CO2 cathode interface have caused premature battery failure. Herein,
nitrogen (N)-doped nanocarbon derived from metal–organic frameworks
is designed as a cathode catalyst to solve this challenge. The porous
and highly conductive N-doped nanocarbon possesses superior uptake
and binding capability with CO2, which significantly accelerates
the CO2 electroreduction and promotes the formation of
thin sheetlike discharged products (200 nm in thickness) that can
be easily decomposed upon charging. Accordingly, reduced discharge/charge
overpotential, high discharge capacity (>10 000 mAh g–1), long cycle life, and high energy density (180 Wh
kg–1 in pouch cells) are achieved at 50 °C.