More and more experimental results and structural analysis confirm the two-step desodiation process in NaFePO4. During the first step, sodium is extracted from NaFePO4 through a single homogeneous phase process up to the intermediate phase, when Na2/3FePO4 forms at the voltage discontinuity (that is, a solid solution process for NaxFePO4, 1 > x> 2/3). In the second step, sodium extraction occurs in a two-phase process between a Na-rich NayFePO4 phase and a Na-poor FePO4 phase whose composition has been found to vary with overall Na content in the electrode (that is, a two-phase process between Na2/3FePO4 and FePO4). As a result, contrary to the symmetrical biphasic mechanism observed in micrometric LiFePO4, Na extraction occurs in two voltage plateaus separated by an intermediate phase NaxFePO4 (x 2/3), whereas three phases (FePO4, Na2/3FePO4 and NaFePO4) appear simultaneously during Na insertion. The crystal structure of Na2/3FePO4 has been recently studied in detail with synchrotron X-ray diffraction
and defined as a superstructure due to Na/vacancies and charge ordering. The intermediate phase at x ¼ 2/3 for NaxFePO4 is also much more stable, compared to the lithium equivalent. The large cell mismatch enhances the effects of the diffuse interface, which has a higher impact on the Na-ion than Li-ion intercalation chemistry, and therefore a reduced miscibility gap in the overall composition are observed here in micrometric materials. Recently, a detailed understanding of the intermediate phase, Na2/3FePO4, has been reported. With a variety of characterization methods, Boucher et al. proposed a three-fold superstructure for the Na2/3FePO4 intermediate phase, with a dense plane being formed by the 2/3 Na and 1/3 vacancy sub-lattice in the intermediate phase, related to the second/third shortest Na–Na distances. This finding introduces a new strategy to develop high-rate olivine cathodes for Na-ion batteries by producing grains with larger (101) surface areas.