Synthesis Of Sb₂O₃@C Core-Shell Nanostructures For Na-Ion Battery

It is known that lithium ion battery?LIB?has application in electric vehicles and other mobile devices due to its high energy density and long cycle life.However the resource for Li and the cost of manufacture has made it difficult for producer to meet the demand.Sodium ion battery?NIB?however is a promising alternative as due to the abundance of Na and the ability to develop anode material with enhanced capacity and long cycling capability.Antimony?Sb?is an attractive anode material use to synthesis Sb@C nanostructures with high reversible capacity and stable cycling.In this thesis research Antimony Trichloride?SbCl₃?is identified as a good material for the synthesis of Sb₂O₃@C composite for high performance sodium ion batteries because of its high specific capacity 660mAhg^-1.The principle is to oxidize SbCl₃ to for Sb₂O₃.Sb₂O₃ then reacts with a solvent and coated with carbon to form nanostructures.Ultimately,this material will be used to fabricate an anode for the assembly of a battery.When the battery is assembled with the other materials,the nanostructures formed will then facilitate the sodiation and desodiation process inside the battery,during the charging and discharging of the battery.How well charging and discharging process is done,determines the performance of battery.The solvent slurry experimental procedure and conduct experiments are necessary.These experiments will result in carbon coated nanostructures materials which will be used to prepare an anode.The nanostructure inside the anode material will be viewed by SEM imaging and Raman Spectrometry and then assembled inside battery.The battery will then be tested for electrochemical properties by battery testing system?BTS?.This will determine the viability of Sb₂O₃ as an anodic material as a scalable alternative for Na-ion battery.The analytical data presented from SEM,Raman spectroscopy and BTS show that Sb₂O₃@C nanoparticle was successfully synthesized.For the structural integrity of the nanoparticles and the electrochemical performance,carbon coating as well as thermal treatment?annealing?is essential.Ultimately the results confirmed that this anode material is capable of high specific capacity of 440mAhg^-11 at 0.1Ag^-11 after 500cycles.Though the capacity does not reflect the theoretical capacity of 660mAhg^-1,its rate performance is consistent and shows the stability of the material.With the good results emerging from the electrochemical analysis,it is safe to say that the solvent slurry process in a viable option for the fabrication of Sb₂O₃ nanoparticle anode.