Zhang Zhanrui, Wang Yao, Sun Jie, Dang Liqin, Li Qi, He Xuexia, Liu Zonghuai, Lei Zhibin
Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, MOE, Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, 620 West Chang'an Street, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710119, China.
Small. 2024 Nov;20(46):e2402636. doi: 10.1002/smll.202402636. Epub 2024 Jul 31.
Aqueous zinc-ion batteries hold great potentials for large-scale grid energy storage. However, the electrode corrosion, hydrogen evolution, and dendrite growth of Zn anode often lead to cell failure. Herein, N groups in TiCT (NMXH) are introduced as interfacial layer through hydrothermal treatment of TiCT with urea. The experimental analysis and density functional theory calculation indicate that N groups in TiCT can homogenize electric field distribution, promote adsorption of Zn on N groups, and strength interactions between N groups and Zn atoms on (002) plane. Thereby, the use of NMXH interfacial layer can effectively suppress the side reactions and realize uniform Zn deposition along the (002) plane. As a consequence, the NMXH─Zn//Zn cell exhibits an ultralow nucleation overpotential (1 mA cm, 18.9 mV) and can stably operate for 1400 h at 1 mA cm (1 mAh cm) and 110 h at 40 mA cm (1 mAh cm). A full battery with VO nanowires as cathode displays a discharge capacity of 219 mAh g (1.0 A g), along with a decent rate capability and cyclability. The significant role of N groups reported in this work offers a promising avenue to improve the cycling stability of Zn anodes of aqueous zinc batteries.
水系锌离子电池在大规模电网储能方面具有巨大潜力。然而，锌阳极的电极腐蚀、析氢和枝晶生长常常导致电池失效。在此，通过用尿素对TiCT进行水热处理，将TiCT中的N基团作为界面层引入。实验分析和密度泛函理论计算表明，TiCT中的N基团可以使电场分布均匀化，促进锌在N基团上的吸附，并增强N基团与(002)面上锌原子之间的相互作用。因此，使用NMXH界面层可以有效抑制副反应，并实现沿(002)面的均匀锌沉积。结果，NMXH─Zn//Zn电池表现出超低的成核过电位(1 mA cm，18.9 mV)，并且在1 mA cm(1 mAh cm)下可稳定运行1400小时，在40 mA cm(1 mAh cm)下可稳定运行110小时。以VO纳米线为正极的全电池显示出219 mAh g(1.0 A g)的放电容量，以及良好的倍率性能和循环稳定性。这项工作中报道的N基团的重要作用为提高水系锌电池锌阳极的循环稳定性提供了一条有前景的途径。
