Low-cost shape-control synthesis of porous carbon film on β-alumina ceramics for Na-based battery application

Porous carbon films with tunable pore structure to modify the beta ''-alumina electrolyte surface are fabricated through a low-cost and direct wet chemistry method with glucose and poly(methyl-methacrylate) (PMMA) as precursors. FTIR analysis confirms the effective connection between the carbohydrate and the pore-forming agent PMMA through hydrogen bonds. The experimental results indicate that the structural parameters of the porous carbon films, including mean pore size and film thickness, can be tuned simply by adjusting the amount of PMMA in the glucose/PMMA composite. This soft-template-assisted method could be readily extended to modify any other ceramic surfaces. The porous carbon films are demonstrated to greatly improve the wettability of the beta ''-alumina ceramics by molten sodium. Na/beta ''-alumina/Na cells are used to investigate the interfacial properties between sodium and the beta ''-alumina electrolyte. The results obtained at 350 degrees C reveal that the polarization behavior of the cell is alleviated by the porous coating. This work represents a successful method to coat ceramics with porous carbon and offers a promising solution to overcome the polarization problems of the sodium/beta ''-alumina interface in Na-based batteries. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.