The reporter was informed on the 16th that the research team of Academician Chen Jun of the School of Chemistry of Nankai University used sodium carbonate and carbon nanotubes to prepare a sodium-free prefilled 'breathable' sodium-carbon dioxide battery. The related results became the first publication of the first issue of Research.
According to reports, the primary version of the 'breathable' battery is a lithium-oxygen battery, which takes oxygen from the air during discharge and releases oxygen when it is charged, so it is called a 'breathable' battery. The resulting sodium-carbon dioxide can be recharged. The battery generally uses sodium metal as the negative electrode, carbon and other materials as the positive electrode, and carbon dioxide is taken from the outside during discharge, and carbon dioxide is released during charging. Compared with the lithium-oxygen battery, the battery is rich in raw materials, convenient to prepare, and also utilizes carbon dioxide gas. Achieve green sustainable development.
At present, sodium-carbon dioxide battery development has a major difficulty: Excessive metal sodium and negative electrode are easy to form dendrites, which leads to safety hazards caused by short-circuit of the battery, and the preparation of sodium metal is mainly through electrolytic melting of sodium chloride or sodium hydroxide, which is energy-intensive. Chen Jun's group overcomes the difficulties of poor conductivity of sodium carbonate, and prepares an inexpensive composite material of sodium carbonate on the surface of multi-walled carbon nanotubes by dissolution and precipitation method, and uses this as a positive electrode and conductive carbon as a negative electrode to construct sodium-free for the first time. Pre-filled 'breathable' sodium-carbon dioxide battery. The battery can successfully inhibit dendrite formation by controlling the charging capacity, and the safety is greatly enhanced. After testing for a loop capacity of 0.3 mAh/cm2, it is still after 100 cycles. The charging voltage is guaranteed to be lower than 4V. The research group has assembled a single cell with a capacity of 350mAh and an energy density of 183Wh/kg (based on the entire battery mass).
Sodium carbonate is easy to prepare in industry, and carbon is widely existed in nature. The research results of Chen Jun's research group avoid the pre-filling of negative metal sodium, which can effectively reduce the safety hazard of the battery and provide a new idea for safe battery design. In addition, Mars' atmosphere contains 95% carbon dioxide. This sodium-free prefilled 'breathable' sodium-carbon dioxide battery is expected to provide a potential electrochemical energy system for Mars exploration.
