Polydopamine-Derived Nitrogen-Doped Carbon-Covered NaV(PO)F Cathode Material for High-Performance Na-Ion Batteries.

Nitrogen-doped carbon-covered NaV(PO)F (NVPF/C-PDPA) composites have been successfully prepared by self-polymerization of dopamine on the NVPF surface and subsequent sintering. The X-ray diffraction results show that the NVPF/C-PDPA has good crystallinity and introducing dopamine does not affect the lattice structure of NVPF. The high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, high-angle annular dark-field images, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analyses reveal that the NVPF/C-PDPA particles are covered by a complete and uniform covering layer, which is effective at preventing corrosion of NVPF in the electrolyte to greatly increase cycling stability. Furthermore, N-doping into the carbon layer can produce additional active sites to improve the capacity especially the rate capacity. Such a NVPF/C-PDPA electrode delivers a remarkable rate capacity (98.0 mA h g at 10 C) and superior cycle performance (∼95.8% capacity retention at 10 C after 800 cycles). We believe that this work may be beneficial for accelerating the development of high-performance electrode materials and the commercialization of Na-ion batteries.