Theoretical Calculation Assisted Design of Dual Additives Enables Robust Electrode/Electrolyte Interphases for High-Voltage Sodium Ion Full Cells

Abstract

High-voltage sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) hold promise for energy storage, but unstable electrode/electrolyte interphases (EEI) due to excessive solvent decomposition under high voltage (>4.2 V) hinder their practical viability. Herein, a dual-additive electrolyte system is rationally designed via synergistic integration of theoretical calculations and experimental optimization to stabilize the EEI. Density functional theory calculations identify fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) and 1,3,5-tri-2-propenyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-(1H,3H,5H)-trione (TAIC) as functional additives. Specifically, FEC lowers the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level of the electrolyte through electron-withdrawing effects, thereby enhancing oxidative stability, while TAIC prioritizes oxidation-reduction to alleviate solvent decomposition because of its low lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy level (-0.72 eV) and high HOMO energy level (-7.53 eV). Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that both additives could reduce the solvent coordination number from 4.35 to 4.26, further promoting the formation of an additive-derived EEI. The full cell with optimized electrolyte (5 wt.% FEC, 0.2 wt.% TAIC) delivers a high specific capacity of 120.56 mAh g−1 at 0.02 A g−1 and 101.59 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 under 4.35 V. Moreover, XPS and TEM characterizations revealed that the dual-additive system induces the formation of a Na3N/NaF-enriched composite EEI, thereby synergistically enhancing transport of Na+ and mechanical strength.

Supplementary files

Transparent peer review

To support increased transparency, we offer authors the option to publish the peer review history alongside their article.

View this article’s peer review history

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Jun 2025
Accepted
20 Aug 2025
First published
21 Aug 2025

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2025, Accepted Manuscript

Theoretical Calculation Assisted Design of Dual Additives Enables Robust Electrode/Electrolyte Interphases for High-Voltage Sodium Ion Full Cells

P. Guo, W. Niu, L. Li, T. Wu and W. Li, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2025, Accepted Manuscript , DOI: 10.1039/D5TA05059F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements