Li Qing, Hong Hu, Zhu Jiaxiong, Wu Zhuoxi, Li Chuan, Wang Donghong, Li Pei, Zhao Yuwei, Hou Yue, Liang Guojin, Mo Funian, Cui Huilin, Zhi Chunyi
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China.
Hong Kong Center for Cerebro-Cardiovascular Health Engineering (COCHE), Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong 999077, China.
ACS Nano. 2023 Dec 12;17(23):23805-23813. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.3c07848. Epub 2023 Nov 30.
Uncontrollable dendrite formation in the Zn anode is the bottleneck of the commercialization of rechargeable aqueous zinc-based batteries (RAZBs). Interface, the location of the charge transfer process occuring, can significantly affect the further morphology evolution in ways that have not yet been fully comprehended, for example, the crystal facet and orientation of the coating layer. In this study, we demonstrated that the morphology and kinetics of the Zn anode could be tuned by the crystal facet. The fabricated textured ZnSe (T-ZnSe) layer can significantly enhance the reaction kinetics and induce uniform (0002) deposition. In stark contrast, the polycrystalline P-ZnSe coating hinders the charge transfer process at the interface. With this T-ZnSe@Zn as the anode, the full cell with an I cathode and a practical areal capacity (2 mAh cm) can work well for 900 cycles. The effectiveness of this anode has also been testified by a pouch cell with an overall capacity of 150 mAh. This research contributes to the understanding of the interface and the feasible strategy for the practical application of the Zn anode.
锌负极中不可控的枝晶形成是可充电水系锌基电池（RAZBs）商业化的瓶颈。界面作为电荷转移过程发生的位置，能够以尚未被完全理解的方式显著影响进一步的形貌演变，例如涂层的晶面和取向。在本研究中，我们证明了锌负极的形貌和动力学可以通过晶面进行调控。制备的织构化ZnSe（T-ZnSe）层能够显著增强反应动力学并诱导均匀的（0002）沉积。与之形成鲜明对比的是，多晶的P-ZnSe涂层阻碍了界面处的电荷转移过程。以这种T-ZnSe@Zn作为负极，具有I型阴极和实际面积容量（2 mAh cm）的全电池能够良好地工作900次循环。这种负极的有效性也通过一个总容量为150 mAh的软包电池得到了验证。本研究有助于理解界面以及锌负极实际应用的可行策略。
