Comparison of electrochemical performances of olivine NaFePO4 in sodium-ion batteries and olivine LiFePO4 in lithium-ion batteries

Carbon-coated olivine NaFePO4 (C-NaFePO4) spherical particles with a uniform diameter of similar to 80 nm are obtained by chemical delithiation and subsequent electrochemical sodiation of carbon-coated olivine LiFePO4 (C-LiFePO4), which is synthesized by a solvothermal method. The C-NaFePO4 electrodes are identical (particle size, particle size distribution, surface coating, and active material loading, etc.) to C-LiFePO4 except that Li ions in C-LiFePO4 are replaced by Na ions, making them ideal for comparison of thermodynamics and kinetics between C-NaFePO4 cathode in sodium-ion (Na-ion) batteries and C-LiFePO4 in lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. In this paper, the equilibrium potentials, reaction resistances, and diffusion coefficient of Na in C-NaFePO4 are systematically investigated by using the galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV), and compared to those of the well-known LiFePO4 cathodes in Li-ion batteries. Due to the lower diffusion coefficient of Na-ion and higher contact and charge transfer resistances in NaFePO4 cathodes, the rate performance of C-NaFePO4 in Na-ion batteries is much worse than that of C-LiFePO4 in Li-ion batteries. However, the cycling stability of C-NaFePO4 is almost comparable to C-LiFePO4 by retaining 90% of its capacity even after 100 charge-discharge cycles at a charge-discharge rate of 0.1 C.