Rapid preparation of binary mixtures of sodium carboxylates as anodes in sodium-ion batteries

Sodium-ion batteries are emerging as a sustainable solution to tackle the growing global energy demands. In this context, organic electrode materials complement such technologies as they are composed of earth-abundant elements. As organic anodes, sodium carboxylates exhibit promising applicability in a wide range of molecules. To harness the advantages of individual systems and to minimise their limitations, in this work, an approach to form binary mixtures of sodium carboxylates using one-pot, microwave-assisted synthesis is presented. The target mixtures were synthesised in 30 min with disodium naphthalene-2,6-dicarboxylate (Na-NDC) as a common constituent in all. Both components in all mixtures were shown to participate in the charge storage and had a considerable effect on the performance characteristics, such as specific capacity and working voltage, in half and full cell formats. This approach opens a new avenue for enabling organic materials to be considered as more competitive candidates in sodium-ion batteries and promote their use in other material classes to overcome their limitations.