Wang Gang, Kuang Quan, Jiang Pan, Fan Qinghua, Dong Youzhong, Zhao Yanming
School of Physics and Optoelectronics, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510641, P. R. China.
South China Institute of Collaborative Innovation, Dongguan, 523808, P. R. China.
Nanoscale. 2023 Apr 6;15(14):6722-6731. doi: 10.1039/d3nr00136a.
The commercialization of aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) has been hindered by the obsession with Zn-metal anode, just like the early days of lithium-ion batteries. Developing Zn-metal free aqueous batteries (ZFABs) with superior Zn-supplied cathodes is a promising way to escape this predicament. Herein, a novel mixed transition-metal spinel, ZnVMoO, has been synthesized a sol-gel technique and proposed as a Zn-supplied cathode material. Utilizing the synergistic effect of vanadium and molybdenum, ZnVMoO can provide a high capacity of 360.3 mA h g at 100 mA g, which is the state-of-the-art in existing Zn-supplied cathodes, and the capacity retention is 82% over 700-4500 cycles at 10 A g. The mechanism is that ZnVMoO undergoes a phase transition to Zn(V,Mo)OHO in the initial charge, and then protons and zinc ions intercalate/deintercalate concurrently into/from the new host. To construct ZFABs with a ZnVMoO cathode, two non-zinc materials (brass and 9,10-anthraquinone) are used as anodes. Thereby, the ZnVMoO||9,10AQ battery reveals a more satisfactory electrochemical performance, with a stable capacity of 100.4 mA h g lasting for 200 cycles, which provides a feasible scheme for the practical application of AZIBs.
