Electrode materials in Na-ion batteries for energy storage applications

In recent years, energy storage devices especially rechargeable batteries have become an integral part of portable electronic devices like mobiles, laptops as well being used at large scale in electrical vehicles (EV), hybrid electrical vehicles and power grids. Among various types of batteries, in the present scenario the only commercially established and feasible technology is based on Li-ion intercalation, mainly due to the advantage of high energy density, good rate kinetics and light weight. However, the major concern is due to the limited availability and uneven distribution of Li around the world, which evoke the urge among the researchers to look for other possibilities. Therefore, even after nearly three decades since first commercial battery was introduced, constant efforts are going on to search new electrode materials (negative as well as positive) for improving its electrochemistry. Among the alternative avenue, the Na-ion batteries are one of the potential candidates particularly for grid level storage due to its low cost and abundance on the globe, and therefore extensive research has been started in this field over past few years. In this direction, one of the major challenges is to find the suitable electrode materials and in particular a stable anode with high electrochemical performance. Transition metal oxides are widely studied as cathode as well as anode in Li/Na/K ion batteries. In this talk, I will discuss our recent results on the Na/Li-ion diffusion and electrochemical performance of NVO as anode material in Na/Li-ion batteries with the specific capacity of ~350 mAhg^-1 at the current density 11 mAg^-1 after 300 cycles for Li-ion battery