All-climate sodium ion batteries based on the NASICON electrode materials

In this work, we have achieved all-climate high-rate performance of sodium ion batteries by utilizing electrode materials with Na Super Ionic Conductor (NASICON) crystalline structure. A designed NASICON-structured carbon-coated Na₃V₂(PO₄)₃ (NVP@C) nanocomposite exhibits an excellent performance at high rates in a wide temperature range (i.e., from −20 to 55 °C). Even at a low temperature of −20 °C, the NVP@C cathode can still maintain a discharge capacity of 91.3 mA h g⁻¹ or 85.2% of the room performance at 10C, and secure an average output voltage of 2.86 V (vs. Na⁺/Na). These excellent wide-temperature accomplishments can be ascribed to fast three-dimensional Na⁺ hopping transportation mechanism in the NASICON structure. The finding in this work offers a promising strategy to address the long-standing inherent wide-temperature issues of rechargeable batteries and extends the potential application of sodium ion batteries.