Sodium transition metal oxides: the preferred cathode choice for future sodium-ion batteries?

Abstract

The exploration of next-generation sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) is a worldwide concern to replace the current commercial lithium-ion batteries, mitigating the increasing exhaustion of Li resources. Sodium transition metal oxides are considered to be one of the most promising cathode materials for SIBs. The anionic redox reaction in Li-rich transition metal oxides is capable of providing extra capacity in addition to the cationic redox activities in lithium-ion batteries. A similar phenomenon exists in SIBs, which even applies to Na-deficient transition metal oxides. Moreover, transition metal oxides with mixed phase also demonstrate great potential. In this review, studies on anionic redox are first systematically introduced. The up-to-date advances on high-capacity transition metal oxide cathode materials for SIBs are then classified and summarized in different groups associated with or without anionic redox. The existing challenges as well as available solutions and strategies are discussed, and proposals with new insights are made at the end. It is expected that this work can provide new perspectives on controlling the anionic redox activity and finding novel high-capacity oxide cathode materials for SIBs.