Novel High-Pressure Nanocomposites for Cathode Materials in Sodium Batteries.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Szpakiewicz-Szatan, Aleksander Starzonek, Szymon Pietrzak, Tomasz K. Garbarczyk, Jerzy E. Rzoska, Sylwester J. Boćkowski, Michał
Editor	Lee, Jung Woo
Copyright Year	2022
Abstract	A new nanocomposite material was prepared by high pressure processing of starting glass of nominal composition NaFePO4. Thermal, structural, electrical and dielectric properties of the prepared samples were studied by differential thermal analysis (DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS). It was demonstrated that high-pressure–high-temperature treatment (HPHT) led to an increase in the electrical conductivity of the initial glasses by two orders of magnitude. It was also shown that the observed effect was stronger than for the lithium analogue of this material studied by us earlier. The observed enhancement of conductivity was explained by Mott’s theory of electron hopping, which is more frequent in samples after pressure treatment. The final composite consisted of nanocrystalline NASICON (sodium (Na) Super Ionic CONductor) and alluaudite phases, which are electrochemically active in potential cathode materials for Na batteries. Average dimensions of crystallites estimated from XRD studies were between 40 and 90 nm, depending on the phase. Some new aspects of local dielectric relaxations in studied materials were also discussed. It was shown that a combination of high pressures and BDS method is a powerful method to study relaxation processes and molecular movements in solids. It was also pointed out that high-pressure cathode materials may exhibit higher volumetric capacities compared with commercially used cathodes with carbon additions.
Journal	Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland)
Volume Number	13
PubMed Central reference number	PMC9824519
Issue Number	1
PubMed reference number	36616074
e-ISSN	20794991
DOI	10.3390/nano13010164
Language	English
Publisher	MDPI
Publisher Date	2022-12-30
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). © 2022 by the authors.
Subject Keyword	high pressures nanocomposites cathode materials conductive glasses hopping conductivity Na-Ion batteries
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Chemical Engineering Materials Science