Open Access

Highlighting recent progress in the Graeber Lab for Energy Research in the areas of alkali-metal tensiometry, alkali-metal anodes in contact with solid electrolytes, sulfur cathodes and solid electrolyte synthesis.

Selbstvorstellung der Batterieforschungsaktivitäten der HU Berlin in Kooperation mit lokalen Partnern wie der BAM im Rahmen eines Netzwerktreffens. Fokus auf die Forschung in der Arbeitsgruppe Graeber zu Festkörperbatterien und der Arbeitsgruppe Adelhelm zu Natrium-Ionen-Batterien.

The development of post-lithium-ion batteries has sparked significant interest in alkali-metal anodes, particularly sodium (Na), potassium (K), and sodium−potassium (Na−K) alloys. Na−K alloys are promising for partially liquid anodes due to their unique low melting points. A critical factor influencing Na−K-based anode performance is wetting behavior, which governs electrical conductivity, mechanical contact, and long-term stability. At the heart of wetting lies surface tension, a fundamental property of solid−liquid− gas interactions. However, the surface tension of alkali metals and their alloys, particularly Na−K systems, remains poorly understood due to experimental and theoretical challenges. This study bridged these gaps by employing Du Noüy ring tensiometry for the first time in alkali-metal systems to measure the surface tension of Na, K, and Na−K alloys across temperatures from ambient to 180 °C. A key innovation in this work is the development of the push-in Du Noüy method, which provided significantly higher precision and reliability compared to the traditional pull-out technique, without requiring a correction factor. The measured surface tension decreased with increasing temperature for the studied Na−K alloys. For instance, for a eutectic Na−K mixture, the surface tension decreases from 121.7 mN m−1 to 112.2 mN m−1 when increasing the temperature from ambient to 180 °C. Additionally, this study presented the first use of Gibbs free energy minimization to model the surface tension of the Na−K system. The robust method significantly enhanced the predictive accuracy compared to the previous simplified model, reducing deviations from 25% to 2%. Our findings reveal that surface tension increases with sodium mole fraction in the bulk phase, yet the surface monolayer remains potassium-rich, indicating non-ideal surface behavior. This study deepens the understanding of alkali-metal wetting behavior, providing valuable insights for designing optimized interfaces in next-generation semi-solid alkali-metal batteries.

Here we discuss how X-ray computed tomography can be used to learn more about alkali-metal batteries. We show wetting phenomena in alkali-metal batteries, discuss various techniques to study them, and show our recent results obtained at DESY in Hamburg.

Batteries with liquid alkali‐metal negative electrodes offer a route to compact, high‐performance energy storage. Innovation in alkali‐metal management, i.e., controlled storage, release and transport of liquid alkali metal, can enable simpler and cheaper cell designs. Porous carbons have emerged as potential host materials for liquid alkali metals. Here, X‐ray computed tomography is used to study the wetting interactions between porous carbon hosts and liquid sodium‐potassium alloy (NaK) as a function of carbon host morphology and surface functionalization. While as‐received carbon samples show no affinity toward NaK, heat‐treated carbon is spontaneously infiltrated with NaK filling almost the entire pore volume. It is explored how forced wetting partially fills pores of NaK‐repellant hosts, showing large differences in pore filling based on the average pore size of the host material. In electrochemical discharge experiments, it is shown that both as‐received and heat‐treated carbon felt enable high areal capacities beyond 40 mAh cm−2. However, the heat‐treated carbon shows ten times lower overpotential. Finally, it is demonstrated how heat‐treated carbon felt can enable capillary transport of NaK. In summary, this study elucidates important aspects of the interactions between liquid alkali metals and porous carbon hosts, generating insights into possible applications in liquid alkali‐metal batteries.