A 4 V Class Potassium Metal Battery with Extremely Low Overpotential.

Ye, Minghui; Hwang, Jang-Yeon; Sun, Yang-Kook · ACS Nano · 2019

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

K metal anodes usually have a low Coulombic efficiency and poor safety owing to their large volume variation and high chemical reactivity. In this study, a three-dimensional K (3D-K) anode is formed by plating metallic K into hollow N-doped C polyhedrons/graphene (HNCP/G). Then a Sn-based solid-electrolyte interphase layer is conformably coated onto the surface of 3D-K to construct Sn@3D-K. Compared with the typical K-foil anode, the Sn@3D-K anode can significantly reduce the interfacial resistance, improve the K<sup>+</sup> ion transport mobility, reduce parasitic reactions, and suppress the formation of K dendrites. Meanwhile, HNCP/G serves as a chemically stable, conductive host to accommodate the volume expansion/shrinkage of Sn@3D-K. Owing to these merits, the symmetric Sn@3D-K cell exhibits low voltage hysteresis (9 mV at 0.2 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> after 500 h; 31 mV at 1 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> after 100 h). When paired with a Prussian blue (PB)/graphene cathode, the K<sub>1.56</sub>Mn[Fe(CN)<sub>6</sub>]<sub>1.08</sub>/G∥Sn@3D-K battery delivers an average discharge plateau of 4.02 V, an ultralow overpotential of 0.01 V, and a high specific capacity of 147.2 mAh g<sup>-1</sup>, approaching the theoretical value of K<sub>2</sub>MnFe(CN)<sub>6</sub> (156 mAh g<sup>-1</sup>). A 4 V class K metal battery that exhibits extremely low overpotential and high specific capacity, which are the best among previously reported PB-based K batteries, is proposed.