Sodium-ion batteries are promising for large-scale energy storage due to sodium’s low cost and infinite abundance. The most popular cathodes for sodium-ion batteries, i.e., the layered sodium-containing oxides, usually exhibit reversible host rearrangement between P-type and O-type stacking upon charge/discharge. Herein we demonstrate that such host rearrangement is unfavorable and can be suppressed by introducing transition-metal ions into sodium layers. The electrode with stabilized P3-type stacking delivers superior rate capability, high energy efficiency, and excellent cycling performance. Owing to the cation-mixing nature, it performs the lowest lattice strain among all reported cathodes for sodium-ion batteries. Our findings highlight the significance of a stable host for sodium-ion storage and moreover underline the fundamental distinction in material design strategy between lithium- and sodium-ion batteries.

由于钠的低成本和无限丰富，钠离子电池有望用于大规模储能。最流行的钠离子电池阴极，即层状含钠氧化物，通常在充电/放电时表现出 P 型和 O 型堆叠之间的可逆主体重排。在这里，我们证明这种宿主重排是不利的，可以通过将过渡金属离子引入钠层来抑制。具有稳定 P3 型堆叠的电极具有出色的倍率性能、高能效和出色的循环性能。由于阳离子混合性质，它在所有报道的钠离子电池阴极中具有最低的晶格应变。