Interfacial-engineering-enabled practical low-temperature sodium metal battery.

Solid-state sodium (Na) batteries have received extensive attention as a promising alternative to room-temperature liquid electrolyte Na-ion batteries and high-temperature liquid electrode Na-S batteries because of safety concerns. However, the major issues for solid-state Na batteries are a high interfacial resistance between solid electrolytes and electrodes, and Na dendrite growth. Here we report that a yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ)-enhanced beta-alumina solid electrolyte (YSZ@BASE) has an extremely low interface impedance of 3.6 Ω cm 2 with the Na metal anode at 80 °C, and also exhibits an extremely high critical current density of ~7.0 mA cm -2 compared with those of other Li- and Na-ion solid electrolytes reported so far. With a trace amount of eutectic NaFSI-KFSI molten salt at the electrolyte/cathode interface, a quasi-solid-state Na/YSZ@BASE/NaNi 0.45 Cu 0.05 Mn 0.4 Ti 0.1 O 2 full cell achieves a high capacity of 110 mAh g -1 with a Coulombic efficiency >99.99% and retains 73% of the cell capacity over 500 cycles at 4C and 80 °C. Extensive characterizations and theoretical calculations prove that the stable β-NaAlO 2 -rich solid-electrolyte interphase and strong YSZ support matrix play a critical role in suppressing the Na dendrite as they maintain robust interfacial contacts, lower electronic conduction and prevent the continual reduction of BASE through oxygen-ion compensation.