Hoffman Institute of Advanced Materials, Shenzhen Polytechnic, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518000, China.
Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
Nano Lett. 2022 Apr 27;22(8):3298-3306. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c00398. Epub 2022 Apr 6.
Aqueous Zn batteries are emerging as promising energy storage devices. However, severe dendrite growth and side reactions of Zn anodes restrict their further development. Herein, we develop a nucleophilic interfacial layer (NIL) on Zn to achieve a highly stable Zn anode for rechargeable Zn batteries. The NIL in a composition of zinc acetate acetamide is homogeneous, compact, and Zn-conductive, rendering dendrite-free Zn deposition, which is observed by in situ optical microscopy. Benefiting from the advantages of NIL, the Zn||Zn symmetric cells show a low overpotential of 0.12 V at a high current density of 40 mA/cm, enhanced Coulombic efficiency up to 99.9%, and extended lifespan over 2600 cycles. The Zn||Ti asymmetric cells exhibit a high areal capacity of 5 mAh/cm. Moreover, the NIL functionalized Zn anode enables stable cycling of both anode-free Zn||Cl cells and zinc-ion capacitors, providing opportunities for the development of high-performance energy storage devices.
水系锌电池作为有前途的储能设备而备受关注。然而，锌阳极的枝晶生长和副反应严重限制了其进一步发展。在此，我们在锌表面构建了亲核界面层（NIL），实现了用于可充电锌电池的高度稳定锌阳极。该 NIL 由醋酸锌和乙酰胺组成，具有均匀、致密和导锌特性，可实现无枝晶锌沉积，这可通过原位光学显微镜观察到。得益于 NIL 的优势，Zn||Zn 对称电池在 40 mA/cm 的高电流密度下表现出 0.12 V 的低过电势，库仑效率高达 99.9%，循环寿命超过 2600 次。Zn||Ti 不对称电池表现出 5 mAh/cm 的高面积容量。此外，功能化 NIL 的锌阳极还能够稳定运行无锌阳极的 Zn||Cl 电池和锌离子电容器，为高性能储能器件的发展提供了机会。
