Cai Yi, Chua Rodney, Kou Zongkui, Ren Hao, Yuan Du, Huang Shaozhuan, Kumar Sonal, Verma Vivek, Amonpattaratkit Penphitcha, Srinivasan Madhavi
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 11 Faculty Avenue, 639977, Singapore.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Engineering Drive 1, 117574, Singapore.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Aug 12;12(32):36110-36118. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c09061. Epub 2020 Aug 3.
Aqueous rechargeable zinc-ion batteries are emerging as attractive alternatives for post-lithium-ion batteries. However, their electrochemical performances are restricted by the narrow working window of materials in aqueous electrolytes. Herein, a Ni-mediated VO-B nanobelt [(Ni)VO] has been designed to optimize the intrinsic electronic structure of VO-B and thus achieve much more enhanced zinc-ion storage. Specifically, the Zn/(Ni)VO battery yields a good rate capability (182.0 mA h g at 5 A g) with a superior cycling stability (130.6 mA h g at 10 A g after 2000 cycles). Experimental and theoretical methods reveal that the introduction of Ni in the VO tunnel structure can effectively provide high surface reactivity and improve the intrinsic electronic configurations, thus resulting in good kinetics. Furthermore, H and Zn cointercalation processes are determined X-ray diffraction and supported by characterizations. Additionally, quasi-solid-state Zn/(Ni)VO soft-packaged batteries are assembled and provide flexibility in battery design for practical applications. The results provide insights into the interrelationships between the intrinsic electronic structure of the cathode and the overall electrochemical performance.
水系可充电锌离子电池正在成为锂离子电池之后有吸引力的替代方案。然而，它们的电化学性能受到水系电解质中材料狭窄工作窗口的限制。在此，设计了一种镍介导的VO-B纳米带[(Ni)VO]，以优化VO-B的本征电子结构，从而实现大大增强的锌离子存储。具体而言，Zn/(Ni)VO电池具有良好的倍率性能（在5 A g时为182.0 mA h g）和优异的循环稳定性（在10 A g下循环2000次后为130.6 mA h g）。实验和理论方法表明，在VO隧道结构中引入镍可以有效地提供高表面反应性并改善本征电子构型，从而产生良好的动力学。此外，通过X射线衍射确定了氢和锌的共嵌入过程，并得到了表征的支持。此外，还组装了准固态Zn/(Ni)VO软包电池，为实际应用中的电池设计提供了灵活性。这些结果为深入了解阴极本征电子结构与整体电化学性能之间的相互关系提供了思路。
