A Self-Healing Chemistry-Enabled Organic Cathode for Sustainable and Stable Sodium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Sodium-on batteries (SIBs) are promising alternatives to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) because of the low cost, abundance, and high sustainability of sodium resources. Analogous to LIBs, the high-capacity electrodes in SIBs always suffer from rapid capacity decay upon long-term cycling due to the particle pulverization induced by a large volume change. Circumventing particle pulverization plays a critical role in developing high-energy and long-life SIBs. Herein, tetrahydroxy-1,4-benzoquinone disodium salt (TBDS) that can self-heal the cracks by hydrogen bonding between hydroxyl group and carbonyl group is employed as a cathode for sustainable and stable SIBs. The self-healing TBDS exhibits long cycle life of 1000 cycles with a high rate capability up to 2 A g−1 due to the fast Na-ion diffusion reaction in the TBDS cathode. The intermolecular hydrogen bonding has been comprehensively characterized to understand the self-healing mechanism. The hydrogen bonding-enabled self-healing organic materials are promising for developing high-energy and long-cycle-life SIBs.