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Alloying of Alkali Metals with Tellurene
Author(s) -
Jain Rishabh,
Yuan Yifei,
Singh Yashpal,
Basu Swastik,
Wang Dawei,
Yang Aijun,
Wang Xiaohua,
Rong Mingzhe,
Lee Ho Jin,
Frey David,
Khadka Rajan,
Hundekar Prateek,
Kim Sang Ouk,
Han Fudong,
Wang LinWang,
Mitlin David,
ShahbazianYassar Reza,
Koratkar Nikhil
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advanced energy materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.08
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1614-6840
pISSN - 1614-6832
DOI - 10.1002/aenm.202003248
Subject(s) - crystallinity , materials science , alkali metal , crystallite , lithium (medication) , van der waals force , alloy , graphite , transmission electron microscopy , chemical engineering , crystallography , nanotechnology , metallurgy , composite material , organic chemistry , chemistry , medicine , molecule , engineering , endocrinology
Abstract Graphite anodes offer low volumetric capacity in lithium‐ion batteries. By contrast, tellurene is expected to alloy with alkali metals with high volumetric capacity (≈2620 mAh cm −3 ), but to date there is no detailed study on its alloying behavior. In this work, the alloying response of a range of alkali metals (A = Li, Na, or K) with few‐layer Te is investigated. In situ transmission electron microscopy and density functional theory both indicate that Te alloys with alkali metals forming A 2 Te. However, the crystalline order of alloyed products varies significantly from single‐crystal (for Li 2 Te) to polycrystalline (for Na 2 Te and K 2 Te). Typical alloying materials lose their crystallinity when reacted with Li—the ability of Te to retain its crystallinity is therefore surprising. Simulations reveal that compared to Na or K, the migration of Li is highly “isotropic” in Te, enabling its crystallinity to be preserved. Such isotropic Li transport is made possible by Te's peculiar structure comprising chiral‐chains bound by van der Waals forces. While alloying with Na and K show poor performance, with Li, Te exhibits a stable volumetric capacity of ≈700 mAh cm −3 , which is about twice the practical capacity of commercial graphite.