Effects of Starch as Carbon precursor on hydrothermal synthesis and Electrochemical performance of Sodium manganese iron phosphate /carbon

Currently Sodium based electrode materials for Li and Na-ion batteries are getting more attention as the most promising potential alternatives of their lithiated counterparts due to their cost effective, environmental friendly characteristics and availability of sodium. Nevertheless, it remains a practical challenge to find an electrode material of LIBs and SIBs showing ideal performance. We report here a composite material of Sodium manganese iron phosphate/carbon, successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method. We have characterized our material by using a combination of Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron Microscopy (SEM) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Sodium manganese iron phosphate (NMFP) particles are electrochemically activated by starch and acetylene black to form NMFP/C cathode material for LIBs. NMFP/C composite in which starch is used as carbon precursor exhibits good discharge capacity due to the presence of pyran rings which increase NMFP/C conductivity.