In-situ deposition of sodium titanate thin film as anode for sodium-ion micro-batteries developed by pulsed laser deposition

A Rambabu; B Senthilkumar; K Sada; S B Krupanidhi; P Barpanda

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2017.12.023

In-situ deposition of sodium titanate thin film as anode for sodium-ion micro-batteries developed by pulsed laser deposition

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2018 Mar 15:514:117-121. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2017.12.023. Epub 2017 Dec 7.

Authors

A Rambabu¹, B Senthilkumar², K Sada², S B Krupanidhi³, P Barpanda⁴

Affiliations

¹ Faraday Materials Laboratory, Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, C. V. Raman Avenue, Bangalore 560012, India; Quantum Structures and Device Laboratory, Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, C. V. Raman Avenue, Bangalore 560012, India.
² Faraday Materials Laboratory, Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, C. V. Raman Avenue, Bangalore 560012, India.
³ Quantum Structures and Device Laboratory, Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, C. V. Raman Avenue, Bangalore 560012, India.
⁴ Faraday Materials Laboratory, Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, C. V. Raman Avenue, Bangalore 560012, India. Electronic address: prabeer@iisc.ac.in.

PMID: 29248813
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2017.12.023

Abstract

Sodium-ion thin-film micro-batteries form a niche sector of energy storage devices. Sodium titanate, Na₂Ti₆O₁₃ (NTO) thin films were deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) using solid-state synthesized polycrystalline Na₂Ti₆O₁₃ compound. The phase-purity and crystallinity of NTO in bulk and thin-film forms were confirmed by Rietveld refinement. Electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy revealed the formation of uniform ∼100 nm thin film with roughness of ∼4 nm consisting of homogeneous nanoscale grains. These PLD-deposited NTO thin-films, when tested in Na-half cell architecture, delivered a near theoretical reversible capacity close to 42 mA h g^-1 involving Ti⁴⁺/Ti³⁺ redox activity along with good cycling stability and rate kinetics. Na₂Ti₆O₁₃ can work as an efficient and safe anode in designing sodium-ion thin-film micro-batteries.

Keywords: Micro-batteries; Na(2)Ti(6)O(13); Pulsed laser deposition; Sodium-ion batteries; Thin-film.