The first example of a photopolymerized electrolyte for a sodium-ion battery is proposed herein. By means of a preparation process free of solvents, catalysts, purification steps, and separation steps, it is possible to obtain a three-dimensional polymeric network capable of efficient sodium-ion transport. The thermal properties of the resulting solid electrolyte separator, characterized by means of thermogravimetric and calorimetric techniques, are excellent for use in sustainable energy systems conceived for safe large-scale grid storage. The photopolymerized electrolyte shows a wide electrochemical stability window up to 4.8 V versus Na/Na(+) along with the highest ionic conductivity (5.1 mS cm(-1) at 20 °C) obtained in the field of Na-ion polymer batteries so far and stable long-term constant-current charge/discharge cycling. Moreover, the polymeric networks are also demonstrated for the in situ fabrication of electrode/electrolyte composites with excellent interfacial properties, which are ideal for all-solid-state, safe, and easily upscalable device assembly.
In
the challenging scenario of anode materials for sodium-ion batteries,
TiO
2
nanotubes could represent a winning choice in terms
of cost, scalability of the preparation procedure, and long-term stability
upon reversible operation in electrochemical cells. In this work,
a detailed physicochemical, computational, and electrochemical characterization
is carried out on TiO
2
nanotubes synthesized by varying
growth time and heat treatment, viz. the two most significant experimental
parameters during preparation. A chemometric approach is proposed
to obtain a concrete and solid multivariate analysis of sodium battery
electrode materials. Such a statistical approach, combined with prolonged
galvanostatic cycling and density functional theory analysis, allows
identifying anatase at high growth time as the TiO
2
polymorph
of choice as an anode material, thus creating a benchmark for sodium-ion
batteries, which currently took the center stage of the research in
the field of energy storage systems from renewables.
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