Pulse Discharging of Sodium-Oxygen Batteries to Enhance Cathode Utilization

Daniel Langsdorf, Timo Dahms, Valerie Mohni, Julian Jakob Alexander Kreissl and Daniel Schröder
Additional contact information
Daniel Langsdorf: Institute of Physical Chemistry, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 17, D-35392 Giessen, Germany
Timo Dahms: Institute of Physical Chemistry, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 17, D-35392 Giessen, Germany
Valerie Mohni: Institute of Physical Chemistry, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 17, D-35392 Giessen, Germany
Julian Jakob Alexander Kreissl: Institute of Physical Chemistry, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 17, D-35392 Giessen, Germany
Daniel Schröder: Institute of Physical Chemistry, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 17, D-35392 Giessen, Germany

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 21, 1-14

Abstract: Using sodium metal in sodium-oxygen batteries with aprotic electrolyte enables achieving a very high theoretical energy density. However, the promised values for energy density and capacity are not met in practical studies yet due to poor utilization of the void space in the cathode during battery discharge. In this work, we achieve better cathode utilization and higher discharge capacities by using pulse discharging. We optimize the chosen resting-to-pulse times, the applied current density, and elucidate that three-dimensional cathode materials yield higher capacities compared to two-dimensional ones. By implication, the pulse discharging mode ensures better supply with dissolved oxygen within the cathode. The higher amount of dissolved oxygen accumulated during the resting period after a current pulse is essential to form more of the discharge product, i.e., the metal oxide sodium superoxide. Interestingly, we show for the first time that the superoxide is deposited in a very unusual form of stacked and highly oriented crystal layers. Our findings on the pulse discharging can be transferred to other metal-oxygen battery systems and might assist in achieving their full potential regarding practical energy density.

Keywords: sodium-oxygen battery; electrochemical protocols; pulse discharging; cathode utilization; sodium superoxide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/21/5650/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/21/5650/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:21:p:5650-:d:436427

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().