Stable High‐Rate Sodium Metal Batteries at Room and Low Temperature Enabled by Mixed Ion/Electron‐Conducting Interphase Engineering
Zi‐Jian Chen, Yang Yang, Hui Guo, De‐Shan Bin, Lin LiuSodium metal batteries (SMBs) with high energy density showed great promise for various applications, but they are plagued by uneven and low‐reversibility sodium plating/stripping, particularly when fast‐charging capability at subzero temperatures is pursued. Here, we present a facile method to modulate the Al foil by constructing a mixed ion/electron‐conducting (MIEC) interfacial layer, which takes Na 15 Sn 4 /NaF MIEC interphase as an example, for stable and high‐rate SMBs at room and low temperature. The Na 15 Sn 4 /NaF MIEC interfacial layer can homogenize interfacial Na + /e − distribution, enhance the sodiophilicity, and facilitate interfacial ion transport kinetics, thus inducing favorable Na deposition behavior. Therefore, the asymmetric cells display an average Coulombic efficiency of 99.5% over 800 cycles at 3 mA cm −2 /3 mAh cm −2 ; the symmetric cells achieve a small overpotential (20 mV at 3 mA cm −2 ) for 1800 h. Moreover, the Na 15 Sn 4 /NaF@Al/Na‖Na 3 V 2 (PO 4 ) 3 SMBs can deliver extraordinary rate capability and superb stability (95.7% capacity retention after 1800 cycles at 10 C). More impressively, at the harsh condition of −40 °C, the full cells display outstanding cycling stability with a capacity retention of 97.4% at 1 C for 1700 cycles. This work envisions new perspectives on manipulating interfacial properties of current collectors for high‐performance SMBs.