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Current collector interphase design for high-energy and stable anode-less sodium batteries

Nature Sustainability (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Sodium-ion batteries have emerged as one of the most promising next-generation energy storage systems. However, their widespread application is hindered by the low energy density and high cost of hard carbon anodes. Anode-free designs offer a potential solution but typically suffer from poor cycling performance due to uncontrolled Na plating and inefficient stripping. Here we report a hard-carbon-derived interphase on an aluminium current collector to construct an anode-less sodium battery (ALSB) that maintains high energy density, reduces costs and enhances cycling stability. Remarkably, the interphase layer with a low dielectric constant and strong Na interaction enables homogeneous Na nucleation, crack-free plating and efficient stripping, thereby minimizing active Na loss during cycling. As a result, our ALSB maintains good stability for up to 900 cycles and 2.3-Ah-level ALSBs show an energy density of 203 Wh kg−1. Our findings pave the way for more sustainable batteries with competitive energy density, extended cycle life and lower costs.

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Fig. 1: Influence of CC modifiers on the initial Na nucleation/plating.
Fig. 2: CEs and morphologies of Na plating/stripping on various interphases.
Fig. 3: Criteria of CC interphases for ALSBs.
Fig. 4: Electrochemical performance of Al~HC||Na half cells.
Fig. 5: Electrochemical performance of ALSB full cells.

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Data availability

All data are available in the main text or Supplementary Information, which can also be available from the corresponding author upon request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Z. Li, M. Wang, H. Ji and R. Jiang from Fudan University for their assistance in preparing some of the CCs. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 52261135631 and no. 52103335; F.W.), the Postdoctoral Innovation Talents Support Program of China (BX2021067; J.R.), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (no. 2022M710711; J.R.), and the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (no. 2024ZDSYS02; F.W.).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jiafeng Ruan, Jiaming Hu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, P. R. China

    Jiafeng Ruan, Jiaming Hu, Qin Li, Jinyu Yang, Yang Liu, Yun Song, Dalin Sun, Fang Fang & Fei Wang

  2. School of Materials and Chemistry, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, P. R. China

    Sainan Luo & Shiyou Zheng

  3. Yiwu Research Institute of Fudan University, Yiwu City, P. R. China

    Fang Fang

  4. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, P. R. China

    Fei Wang

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Contributions

J.R. and F.W. conceived the idea for the project. J.R., Y.S., S.Z., D.S., F.F. and F.W. designed the experiments. Q.L. and S.L. assembled the anode-less pouch cell. J.R., Q.L., J.Y. and Y.L. performed the characterization experiments. J.R. and J.H. performed the theoretical calculation. J.R. and F.W. wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fei Wang.

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Nature Sustainability thanks Shuo Wang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–61, Tables 1–9 and references.

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Video 1

Sodium deposition behaviour.

Supplementary Data 1

Sodium deposition behaviour under the weak substrate–Na and Na–Na interactions.

Supplementary Data 2

Sodium deposition behaviour under the weak substrate–Na and strong Na–Na interactions.

Supplementary Data 3

Sodium deposition behaviour under the strong substrate–Na and weak Na–Na interactions.

Supplementary Data 4

Sodium deposition behaviour under the strong substrate–Na and Na–Na interactions.

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Source Data Fig. 5

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Ruan, J., Hu, J., Li, Q. et al. Current collector interphase design for high-energy and stable anode-less sodium batteries. Nat Sustain (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01545-5

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