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True performance metrics in beyond-intercalation batteries

Nature Energy volume 2, Article number: 17091 (2017) Cite this article

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Beyond-intercalation batteries promise a step-change in energy storage compared to intercalation-based lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries. However, only performance metrics that include all cell components and operation parameters can tell whether a true advance over intercalation batteries has been achieved.

Pushing energy storage beyond the limits of current batteries has become both a societal demand and the focus of much cutting-edge research1,2. Lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries (LIBs and SIBs) based on intercalation materials that store mobile Li+ or Na+ ions in stable frameworks of transition metal compounds or carbon are now approaching their limits3. Going beyond their limits requires lighter redox active elements that exchange more electrons and elimination of non-redox active components. This often goes along with the shift from transition to main group elements and thus better sustainability and lower cost, which together motivates potentially game-changing approaches for ‘beyond-intercalation chemistries’. These approaches rely on fundamentally different reactions to intercalation to store charge. These include replacing the carbon anode of a LIB or SIB with Si or Sn alloying4–6 or with conversion materials such as MgH2 or P (refs 7,8), or even with metallic Li or Na (refs 2,9,10). Intercalation cathodes may be replaced by the O2 or S cathode2,10–12. Suitable combinations of such high-capacity electrodes may then result in higher-energy devices than LIBs.

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Figure 1: Capacities with respect to the formal storage material and the super-host structure.
Figure 2: True electrode capacity with limited-capacity cycling.

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  1. Graz University of Technology, Stremayrgasse 9, Graz, 8010, Austria

    Stefan A. Freunberger

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Correspondence to Stefan A. Freunberger.

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Freunberger, S. True performance metrics in beyond-intercalation batteries. Nat Energy 2, 17091 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2017.91

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