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With their advantages of abundant raw material reserves, safety, and low toxicity and cost, sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have gained increasing attention in recent years. Thanks to a high theoretical specific capacity (124 mAh g -1 ), a high operating voltage (about 3.2 V), and a very stable three-dimensional layered structure, sodium ferric fluorophosphate (Na 2 FePO 4 F, NFPF) has emerged as a strong candidate to be used as a cathode material for SIBs. However, applications are currently limited due to the low electronic conductivity and slow ion diffusion rate of NFPF, which result in a low actual specific capacity and a high rate performance. In this study, the authors used a high-temperature solid-phase technique to produce Na 2-x Li x FePO 4 F/C (0 ≤ x ≤ 2) and evaluated the impact on electrode performance of materials with different Na + and Li + contents (values of x). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were also used to analyze the material's crystal structure and nanostructure. The results show that the material had the best room-temperature performance when x = 0.5. At a charge-discharge rate of 0.1 C, the first discharge-specific capacity of the resulting Na 1.5 Li 0.5 FePO 4 F/C cathode material was 122.9 mAh g -1 (the theoretical capacity was 124 mAh g -1 ), and after 100 cycles, it remained at 118 mAh g -1 , representing a capacity retention rate of 96.2% and a Coulomb efficiency of 98%. The findings of this study demonstrate that combining lithium and sodium ions improves the electrochemical performance of electrode materials.

In this investigation, a lithium-free cathode material, Na 0.7 MnO 2.05 -Na 0.91 MnO 2 , was synthesized by the solid phase method. The intercalation mechanism and partial phase transformation mechanism of NMO600 were clarified by in situ X-ray diffraction and impedance. The design of the heterostructure is favourable for improving the lithium ion storage of NMO600, which can deliver a discharge capacity of 83.12 mA h g -1 at 1 A g -1 and keep 61.71 mA h g -1 after 700 cycles.

Nitrogen self-doped carbon was synthesized by hydrothermal and microwave calcination using polyacrylonitrile as a carbon source and nitrogen source. This method dramatically reduces the material preparation time while improving the electrochemical performance of amorphous carbon. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses reveal that the pyridine nitrogen content is increased and the graphitized nitrogen disappeared in an amorphous carbon block. This indicates that the nitrogen doping sites of the amorphous carbon block can be modulated by the hydrothermal method. Microscopic observations show that the nitrogen self-doped carbon is nano-carbon spheres and carbon micron block. The self-doped nitrogen micron carbon block exhibits excellent cyclability and ultra-high rate capacity. When cycled at 0.5 A g -1 , the discharge capacity remains 356.6 mA h g -1 after 1000 cycles. Even cycled at 5 A g -1 , the rate capacity was maintained at 183.3 mA h g -1 after 300 cycles. The defects produced by self-doped pyridine nitrogen, not only improved the reactivity and electronic conductivity but also enhanced lithium-ion diffusion kinetics., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)