Spray-drying as a versatile synthesis method for fluorophosphate-based compounds as cathodes material for Na-ion batteries

Fluorophosphate compounds attract much attention as cathode materials for Na-ion batteries. Indeed, thanks to the inductive effect of the fluoride and phosphate groups, such compounds exhibit a relatively high working potential and good theoretical capacity [1]. In this work, we focus on the iron (Na2FePO4F (NFPF)) and vanadium (Na3V2(PO4)3F3 (NVPF)) based fluorophosphate materials which are characterized by a high theoretical capacity of 124 mAh/g and 128 mAh/g, respectively. In addition, the iron-based phase is also more environmental friendly due to the low toxicity of the iron.
The preparation of such complex phases using conventional solid-state route requires at least two steps with long heat treatment durations. Here, we report a facile aqueous synthesis using the spray-drying method that can be used for both NFPF and NVPF materials and that can be tuned in order to optimize the composition and the morphology of the desired materials.
The major limitation of phosphate-based electrodes is their low intrinsic electronic conductivity. The synthesis of composites with carbon is an effective strategy for the enhancement of the electronic conductivity of these compounds. Spray-drying is a suitable method to incorporate carbon in composite compounds due to the high homogeneity of the obtained particle [2]. It is also a cost effective and up-scalable technique which can produce large quantities of the desired material.
Here, we report the influence of the carbon addition on the structural, morphological and electrochemical properties of NFPF and NVPF compounds. The prepared composite materials were investigated by combining several characterisation techniques such as XRD, SEM and TEM. The electrochemical properties were evaluated by galvanostatic cycling and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in Na-ion batteries.