Sun Chuang, Wu Cuiping, Gu Xingxing, Wang Chao, Wang Qinghong
School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221116, P. R. China.
Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK.
Nanomicro Lett. 2021 Mar 8;13(1):89. doi: 10.1007/s40820-021-00612-8.
Zinc metal batteries have been considered as a promising candidate for next-generation batteries due to their high safety and low cost. However, their practical applications are severely hampered by the poor cyclability that caused by the undesired dendrite growth of metallic Zn. Herein, TiCT MXene was first used as electrolyte additive to facilitate the uniform Zn deposition by controlling the nucleation and growth process of Zn. Such MXene additives can not only be absorbed on Zn foil to induce uniform initial Zn deposition via providing abundant zincophilic-O groups and subsequently participate in the formation of robust solid-electrolyte interface film, but also accelerate ion transportation by reducing the Zn concentration gradient at the electrode/electrolyte interface. Consequently, MXene-containing electrolyte realizes dendrite-free Zn plating/striping with high Coulombic efficiency (99.7%) and superior reversibility (stably up to 1180 cycles). When applied in full cell, the Zn-VO cell also delivers significantly improved cycling performances. This work provides a facile yet effective method for developing reversible zinc metal batteries.
锌金属电池因其高安全性和低成本，被认为是下一代电池的一个有前景的候选者。然而，其实际应用受到严重阻碍，因为金属锌不希望的枝晶生长导致循环性能较差。在此，TiCT MXene首次被用作电解质添加剂，通过控制锌的成核和生长过程来促进锌的均匀沉积。这种MXene添加剂不仅可以吸附在锌箔上，通过提供大量亲锌的氧基团诱导均匀的初始锌沉积，随后参与形成坚固的固体电解质界面膜，还可以通过降低电极/电解质界面处的锌浓度梯度来加速离子传输。因此，含MXene的电解质实现了无枝晶的锌电镀/脱镀，具有高库仑效率（99.7%）和优异的可逆性（稳定循环高达1180次）。当应用于全电池时，锌-钒电池的循环性能也得到了显著改善。这项工作为开发可逆锌金属电池提供了一种简便而有效的方法。
