New nano-engineering strategy shows potential for improved advanced energy storage

(Nanowerk News) The rapid development of renewable energy resources has triggered tremendous demands in large-scale, cost-efficient and high-energy-density stationary energy storage systems. Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) have many advantages but there are more abundant metallic elements available such as sodium, potassium, zinc and aluminum. These elements have similar chemistries to lithium and have recently been extensively investigated, including sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), potassium-ion batteries (PIBs), zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs), and aluminium-ion batteries (AIBs).
Despite promising aspects relating to battery efficiency and longevity the development of these beyond-LIBs have been impeded by the lack of suitable electrode materials.
New research led by Professor Guoxiu Wang from the University of Technology Sydney, and published in Nature Communications ("Strain engineering of two-dimensional multilayered heterostructures for beyond-lithium-based rechargeable batteries"), describes a strategy using interface strain engineering in a graphene nanomaterial to produce a new type of cathode. Strain engineering is the process of tuning a material’s properties by altering its mechanical or structural attributes.
text
Novel material nano-architecture enables the development of new-generation high-energy batteries beyond Li-ion chemistry. (Image: University of Technology Sydney)
“Beyond-lithium-ion batteries are promising candidates for high-energy-density, low-cost and large-scale energy storage applications. However, the main challenge lies in the development of suitable electrode materials," Professor Wang, Director of the UTS Centre for Clean Energy Technology, said.
“This research demonstrates a new type of zero-strain cathodes for reversible intercalation, or insertion, of beyond-Li+ ions (Na+, K+, Zn2+, Al3+) through interface strain engineering of a 2D multilayered VOPO4-graphene heterostructure," he said.
An intercalated lithium-ion battery has sheets, or films, of material separating layers of lithium, allowing lithium cations to shuttle between the anode and cathode electrodes.
Professor Wang said: "When applied as cathodes in K+-ion batteries, we achieved a high specific capacity of 160 mA h g–1 and a large energy density of ∼570 W h kg-1, presenting the best reported performance to date. Moreover, the as-prepared 2D multilayered heterostructure can also be extended as cathodes for high-performance Na+, Zn2+, and Al3+-ion batteries.
The researchers say this work heralds a promising strategy to utilize strain engineering of 2D materials for advanced energy storage applications.
“The strategy of strain engineering could be extended to many other nanomaterials for rational design of electrode materials towards high energy storage applications beyond lithium-ion chemistry,” Professor Wang said.
Source: University of Technology Sydney
Subscribe to a free copy of one of our daily
Nanowerk Newsletter Email Digests
with a compilation of all of the day's news.