Mechanochemical synthesis of sodium carboxylates as anode materials in sodium ion batteries

The ever-growing global energy demand necessitates, amongst other technologies, advances in materials for electrochemical energy storage such as sodium ion batteries. The recent advent of organic-based electrodes is driven by their tremendous structural versatility and the great potential in developing a green battery cycle. Current research aims to solve remaining obstacles such as a lack of robust, efficient and scalable synthesis procedures. In this vein, we present a fast and sustainable mechanochemical synthesis route towards four sodium carboxylates compounds. Target materials can be obtained in the substantially decreased reaction time of only one hour, while retaining the good electrochemical performance reported for conventionally synthesised compounds. More importantly, no solvent is required for these mechanosynthetic transformations, making this approach attractive with respect to goals in line with green chemistry as well as from an economical point of view. The variety of synthesised compounds hints at possible generalisability of the developed methodology and its potential applicability for many other known compounds, beyond the sphere of rechargeable battery systems.