Zhu Yunpei, Cui Yi, Alshareef Husam N
Materials Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, United States.
Nano Lett. 2021 Feb 10;21(3):1446-1453. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c04519. Epub 2021 Jan 20.
Aqueous Zn-based batteries are attractive because of the low cost and high theoretical capacity of the Zn metal anode. However, the Zn-based batteries developed so far utilize an excess amount of Zn (i.e., thick Zn metal anode), which decreases the energy density of the whole battery. Herein, we demonstrate an anode-free design (i.e., zero-excess Zn), which is enabled by employing a nanocarbon nucleation layer. Electrochemical studies show that this design allows for uniform Zn electrodeposition with high efficiency and stability over a range of current densities and plating capacities. Using this anode-free configuration, we showcase a Zn-MnO battery prototype, showing 68.2% capacity retention after 80 cycles. Our anode-free design opens a new direction for implementing aqueous Zn-based batteries in energy storage systems.
水系锌基电池因其锌金属负极成本低、理论容量高而备受关注。然而，迄今为止开发的锌基电池使用了过量的锌（即厚锌金属负极），这降低了整个电池的能量密度。在此，我们展示了一种无负极设计（即零过量锌），该设计通过采用纳米碳成核层得以实现。电化学研究表明，这种设计能够在一系列电流密度和镀覆容量范围内实现高效且稳定的均匀锌电沉积。使用这种无负极配置，我们展示了一款锌-二氧化锰电池原型，在80次循环后容量保持率为68.2%。我们的无负极设计为在储能系统中应用水系锌基电池开辟了一个新方向。
