Modulating electrolyte structure for ultralow temperature aqueous zinc batteries.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32901045.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-18284-0 and PMC identifier 7479594.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Rechargeable aqueous batteries are an up-and-coming system for potential large-scale energy storage due to their high safety and low cost. However, the freeze of aqueous electrolyte limits the low-temperature operation of such batteries. Here, we report the breakage of original hydrogen-bond network in ZnCl<sub>2</sub> solution by modulating electrolyte structure, and thus suppressing the freeze of water and depressing the solid-liquid transition temperature of the aqueous electrolyte from 0 to -114 °C. This ZnCl<sub>2</sub>-based low-temperature electrolyte renders polyaniline||Zn batteries available to operate in an ultra-wide temperature range from -90 to +60 °C, which covers the earth surface temperature in record. Such polyaniline||Zn batteries are robust at -70 °C (84.9 mA h g<sup>-1</sup>) and stable during over 2000 cycles with ~100% capacity retention. This work significantly provides an effective strategy to propel low-temperature aqueous batteries via tuning the electrolyte structure and widens the application range of temperature adaptation of aqueous batteries.