Ten Thousand-Cycle Ultrafast Energy Storage of Wadsley–Roth Phase Fe–Nb Oxides with a Desolvation Promoting Interfacial Layer

• Published in: Nano letters 2021-11, Vol.21 (22), p.9675-9683
• Main Authors: Yang, Yang, Zhu, He, Yang, Fei, Yang, Fan, Chen, Dongjiang, Wen, Zhipeng, Wu, Dongzheng, Ye, Minghui, Zhang, Yufei, Zhao, Jinbao, Liu, Qi, Lu, Xihong, Gu, Meng, Li, Cheng Chao, He, Weidong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03478

Developing advanced electrode materials with enhanced charge-transfer kinetics is the key to realizing fast energy storage technologies. Commonly used modification strategies, such as nanoengineering and carbon coating, are mainly focused on electron transfer and bulk Li+ diffusion. Nonetheless, the desolvation behavior, which is considered as the rate-limiting process for charge-storage, is rarely studied. Herein, we designed a nitridation layer on the surface of Wadsley–Roth phase FeNb11O29 (FNO–x @N) to act as a desolvation promoter. Theoretical calculations demonstrate that the adsorption and desolvation of solvated Li+ is efficiently improved at FNO–x @N/electrolyte interphase, leading to the reduced desolvation energy barrier. Moreover, the nitridation layer can also help to prevent solvent cointercalation during Li+ insertion, leading to advantageous shrinkage of block area and reduced volume change of lattice cell during cycling. Consequently, FNO–x @N exhibits a high-rate capacity of 129.7 mAh g–1 with negligible capacity decay for 10 000 cycles.