A weakly solvating electrolyte towards practical rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38182604.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-44615-y and PMC identifier 10770389.
- 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
Structure deterioration and side reaction, which originated from the solvated H<sub>2</sub>O, are the main constraints for the practical deployment of both cathode and anode in aqueous Zn-ion batteries. Here we formulate a weakly solvating electrolyte to reduce the solvating power of H<sub>2</sub>O and strengthen the coordination competitiveness of SO<sub>4</sub><sup>2-</sup> to Zn<sup>2+</sup> over H<sub>2</sub>O. Experiment results and theoretical simulations demonstrate that the water-poor solvation structure of Zn<sup>2+</sup> is achieved, which can (i) substantially eliminate solvated-H<sub>2</sub>O-mediated undesirable side reactions on the Zn anode. (ii) boost the desolvation kinetics of Zn<sup>2+</sup> and suppress Zn dendrite growth as well as structure aberration of the cathode. Remarkably, the synergy of these two factors enables long-life full cells including Zn/NaV<sub>3</sub>O<sub>8</sub>·1.5H<sub>2</sub>O, Zn/MnO<sub>2</sub> and Zn/CoFe(CN)<sub>6</sub> cells. More importantly, practical rechargeable AA-type Zn/NVO cells are assembled, which present a capacity of 101.7 mAh and stability of 96.1% capacity retention after 30 cycles at 0.66 C.