Amorphous material based heterostructures with disordered heterointerfaces for advanced rechargeable batteries

Advanced rechargeable batteries are critical for enabling effective energy storage. A promising strategy to improve the electrochemical performance involves tailoring heterostructures (HSs) with heterointerfaces (HIs) in the active battery components. The HIs between two heterogeneous materials can facilitate localized "space charge effect" to enhance the capacity output and accelerate mass/charge transfer kinetics. Compared to crystalline HSs and HIs, amorphous material (AM) based HSs possess disordered HIs, which exhibit unique characteristics, such as larger free volume for storing ions and more open channels for fast ion transport. These HSs allow easier release of stress and adjustment of interface band structure. In this review article, the advantages and classification of AM-based HSs with HIs as well as their synthesis and structural characterization methods are first described. Then their potential applications in different types of rechargeable batteries are elaborated. The designed HSs with HIs should supply sufficient ion storage sites, boost charge/mass transfer kinetics, and possess stable structure stability. The key challenges for developing AM-based HSs with HIs are outlined, such as their low ionic and/or electronic conductivity, poor mechanical properties, and high interface resistance. At the end, solutions are proposed for enabling large-scale implementation.