RESUMEN
In recent years, the increasing demand for high-capacity and safe energy storage has focused attention on zinc batteries featuring high voltage, high capacity, or both. Despite extensive research progress, achieving high-energy-density zinc batteries remains challenging and requires the synergistic regulation of multiple factors including reaction mechanisms, electrodes, and electrolytes. In this Review, we comprehensively summarize the rational design strategies of high-energy-density zinc batteries and critically analyze the positive effects and potential issues of these strategies in optimizing the electrochemistry, cathode materials, electrolytes, and device architecture. Finally, the challenges and perspectives for the further development of high-energy-density zinc batteries are outlined to guide research towards new-generation batteries for household appliances, low-speed electric vehicles, and large-scale energy storage systems.
RESUMEN
Although aqueous Zn-ion batteries (ZIBs) with low cost and high safety show great potential in large-scale energy storage system, metallic Zn anode still suffers from unsatisfactory cycle stability due to unregulated growth of Zn dendrites, corrosion, and formation of various side products during electrochemical reaction. Here, an ultrafast and simple method to achieve a stable Zn anode is developed. By simply immersing a Zn plate into an aqueous solution of CuSO4 for only 10-60 s, a uniform and robust protective layer (Zn4 SO4 (OH)6 ·5H2 O/Cu2 O) is formed on commercial Zn plate (Zn/ZCO), which enables uniform electric field distribution and controllable dendrite growth, leading to a long-term cycle life of over 1400 h and high average Coulombic efficiency (CE) of 99.2% at 2.0 mA cm-2 and 2.0 mAh cm-2 . These excellent characteristics of the prepared Zn anode show great potential in practical applications for high-performance aqueous Zn-ion batteries.
RESUMEN
Portable water splitting devices driven by rechargeable metal-air batteries or solar cells are promising, however, their scalable usages are still hindered by lack of suitable multifunctional electrocatalysts. Here, a highly efficient multifunctional electrocatalyst is demonstrated, i.e., 2D nanosheet array of Mo-doped NiCo2 O4 /Co5.47 N heterostructure deposited on nickel foam (Mo-NiCo2 O4 /Co5.47 N/NF). The successful doping of non-3d high-valence metal into a heterostructured nanosheet array, which is directly grown on a conductive substrate endows the resultant catalyst with balanced electronic structure, highly exposed active sites, and binder-free electrode architecture. As a result, the Mo-NiCo2 O4 /Co5.47 N/NF exhibits remarkable catalytic activity toward the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), affording high current densities of 50 mA cm-2 at low overpotentials of 310 mV for OER, and 170 mV for HER, respectively. Moreover, a low voltage of 1.56 V is achieved for the Mo-NiCo2 O4 /Co5.47 N/NF-based water splitting cell to reach 10 mA cm-2 . More importantly, a portable overall water splitting device is demonstrated through the integration of a water-splitting cell and two Zn-air batteries (open-circuit voltage of 1.43 V), which are all fabricated based on Mo-NiCo2 O4 /Co5.47 N/NF, demonstrating a low-cost way to generate fuel energy. This work offers an effective strategy to develop high-performance metal-doped heterostructured electrode.
RESUMEN
Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have demonstrated great potential for large-scale energy storage. However, their practical applications have been restricted by fast Zn dendrite growth and severe side reactions at the Zn/electrolyte interface. Herein, sodium gluconate is incorporated into a mild acidic electrolyte as a multifunctional additive to stabilize the Zn anode. Experiments and theoretical calculations reveal that the SG additive can induce planar growth of Zn along its (002) direction, thereby inhibiting Zn dendrite growth. This dendrite inhibition effect is attributed to the preferential adsorption of Zn2+ on the Zn (002) plane, while the Zn (100) and (101) planes are shielded by gluconate ions. Consequently, Zn||Zn symmetric cells with the electrolyte additive exhibit significantly prolonged cycle lives of 2000 h at 1 mA cm-2, 1 mA h cm-2 and 900 h at 5 mA cm-2, 2.5 mA h cm-2. Futhermore, the Zn||NH4V4O10 full cell retains 95% of its initial capacity after 2000 cycles at a current density of 5 A g-1 with an average CE of nearly 100%. This work offers a cost-effective strategy to enhance the electrochemical performance of AZIBs.
RESUMEN
Achieving a highly robust zinc (Zn) metal anode is extremely important for improving the performance of aqueous Zn-ion batteries (AZIBs) for advancing "carbon neutrality" society, which is hampered by the uncontrollable growth of Zn dendrite and severe side reactions including hydrogen evolution reaction, corrosion, and passivation, etc. Herein, an interlayer containing fluorinated zincophilic covalent organic framework with sulfonic acid groups (COF-S-F) is developed on Zn metal (Zn@COF-S-F) as the artificial solid electrolyte interface (SEI). Sulfonic acid group (- SO3H) in COF-S-F can effectively ameliorate the desolvation process of hydrated Zn ions, and the three-dimensional channel with fluoride group (-F) can provide interconnected channels for the favorable transport of Zn ions with ion-confinement effects, endowing Zn@COF-S-F with dendrite-free morphology and suppressed side reactions. Consequently, Zn@COF-S-F symmetric cell can stably cycle for 1,000 h with low average hysteresis voltage (50.5 mV) at the current density of 1.5 mA cm-2. Zn@COF-S-F|MnO2 cell delivers the discharge specific capacity of 206.8 mAh g-1 at the current density of 1.2 A g-1 after 800 cycles with high-capacity retention (87.9%). Enlightening, building artificial SEI on metallic Zn surface with targeted design has been proved as the effective strategy to foster the practical application of high-performance AZIBs.
RESUMEN
High-energy electrolytic Zn//MnO2 batteries show potential for grid-scale energy storage, but the severe hydrogen evolution corrosion (HEC) caused by acidic electrolytes results in subdued durability. Here, an all-around protection strategy is reported for achieving stable Zn metal anodes. First, a proton-resistant Pb-containing (Pb and Pb(OH)2 ) interface is constructed on a Zn anode (denoted as Zn@Pb), which in situ forms PbSO4 during H2 SO4 corrosion and protects the Zn substrate from HEC. Second, to improve the plating/stripping reversibility of Zn@Pb, Pb(CH3 COO)2 an additive (denoted as Zn@Pb-Ad) is introduced, which triggers PbSO4 precipitation and releases trace Pb2+ that can dynamically deposit a Pb layer on the Zn plating layer to suppress HEC. The superior HEC resistance stems from the low affinity of PbSO4 and Pb for H+ , as well as strong bonding between Pb-Zn or Pb-Pb, which increase the hydrogen evolution reaction overpotential and the H+ corrosion energy barrier. Consequently, the Zn@Pb-Ad//MnO2 battery runs stably for 630 and 795 h in 0.2 and 0.1 m H2 SO4 electrolytes, respectively, which are >40 times better than that of bare Zn. The as-prepared A h-level battery achieves a one-month calendar life, opening the door to the next generation of high-durable grid-scale Zn batteries.
RESUMEN
Zn//MnO2 batteries based on the MnO2 /Mn2+ conversion reaction mechanism featuring high energy density, safety, and affordable cost are promising in large-scale energy storage application. Nonetheless, the continuous H+ intercalation at low potential reduces the average output voltage and the energy efficiency, impeding the development of the high-performance zinc battery. In this work, a strategy was proposed of enhancing the cut-off voltage from the perspective of electrochemical parameters, toward high energy efficiency and stable output voltage of the Zn//MnO2 battery. This strategy was beneficial to promoting MnO2 dissolution/deposition through the increase of acidity caused by the constant accumulation of MnO2 and inhibiting H+ (de)intercalation during cycling process, thereby improving the energy efficiency (83.5 %) along with the stable average output voltage (1.88â V) under the cut-off voltage of 1.8â V. This work provides a new pathway to promote aqueous zinc batteries with high energy density and stable output voltage.
RESUMEN
Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) are one of the promising energy storage systems, which consist of electrode materials, electrolyte, and separator. The first two have been significantly received ample development, while the prominent role of the separators in manipulating the stability of the electrode has not attracted sufficient attention. In this work, a separator (UiO-66-GF) modified by Zr-based metal organic framework for robust AZIBs is proposed. UiO-66-GF effectively enhances the transport ability of charge carriers and demonstrates preferential orientation of (002) crystal plane, which is favorable for corrosion resistance and dendrite-free zinc deposition. Consequently, Zn|UiO-66-GF-2.2|Zn cells exhibit highly reversible plating/stripping behavior with long cycle life over 1650 h at 2.0 mA cm-2, and Zn|UiO-66-GF-2.2|MnO2 cells show excellent long-term stability with capacity retention of 85% after 1000 cycles. The reasonable design and application of multifunctional metal organic frameworks modified separators provide useful guidance for constructing durable AZIBs.