New nanoengineering strategy shows potential to improve advanced energy storage

The rapid development of renewable energy resources has unleashed enormous demands on high-energy-efficient, cost-effective, large-scale stationary energy storage systems.

Lithium ion (LIB) batteries have many advantages, but much more abundant metal elements are available, such as sodium, potassium, zinc, and aluminum.

These elements have a chemistry similar to lithium and have been extensively investigated recently, including sodium ion batteries (SIB), potassium ion batteries (PIB), zinc ion batteries (ZIB), and ion batteries aluminum (AIB). Despite the promising aspects related to redox potential and energy density, the development of these LIB-beyond has been hampered by the lack of suitable electrode materials.

New research led by Professor Guoxiu Wang of the Sydney University of Technology, and published in Nature’s Communications, describes a strategy that uses interface deformation engineering in a 2-D graphene nanomaterial to produce a new type of cathode. Deformation engineering is the process of adjusting the properties of a material by altering its mechanical or structural attributes.

“Batteries beyond lithium-ion are promising candidates for low-cost, large-scale, high-energy-density energy storage applications. However, the main challenge lies in developing suitable electrode materials,” said the professor. Wang, director of the UTS Center for Clean Energy Technology, said.

“This research demonstrates a new type of zero-voltage cathode for reversible ion intercalation beyond Li + (Na⁺, K⁺, Zn_two+, Al₃⁺) through interface deformation engineering of a 2-D multilayer graphene VOPO4 heterostructure.

When applied as cathodes in K + ion batteries, we achieve a high specific capacity of 160 mA hg^-one and a high energy density of ~ 570 W h kg^-one, featuring the best reported performance to date. Furthermore, the prepared 2-D multilayer heterostructure can also be extended as cathodes for high performance Na⁺, Zn_two⁺and al₃⁺-ion ​​batteries.

The researchers say this work heralds a promising strategy for using 2-D material deformation engineering for advanced energy storage applications.

“The deformation engineering strategy could be extended to many other nanomaterials for the rational design of electrode materials towards high-energy storage applications beyond lithium-ion chemistry,” said Professor Wang.