(78i) Supercritical Fluid-Based Synthesis of Antimony Electrode Materials

Antimony is one of the most promising high-rate-capability Na- and Li-ion battery electrode materials, demonstrating extraordinarily high rates of lithiation and sodiation, as well as a large theoretical capacity of 660 mAh/g. Antimony is one of the highest capacity single-element negative electrode materials for Na-ion batteries, with a theoretical capacity lower than only phosphorus and tin. In addition, antimony nanocrystals have exhibited charge/discharge rates as fast as 20C without a significant loss in capacity. Here, we report the supercritical fluid-based synthesis of nanostructured antimony electrode materials. By controlling reaction conditions, precursor concentration, and ligand choice, the synthesis can be tailored to produce an array of nanostructured antimony electrode materials with a variety of morphologies including platelets, truncated octahedra, and dendritic microstructures. This morphological selectivity can be used to evaluate the effects of structural anisotropy on the lithiation/delithation (and sodiation/desodiation) processes, and lead to structural optimization of high-rate-capability antimony-based electrodes.