Liu Shenwen, Han Qizhen, He Chaowei, Xu Zuojie, Huang Pengfei, Cai Lucheng, Chen Hengquan, Zheng Haonan, Zhou Yijing, Wang Mengya, Tian Huajun, Han Wei-Qiang, Ying Hangjun
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
Center of Artificial Photosynthesis for Solar Fuels and Department of Chemistry, School of Science and Research Center for Industries of the Future, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310024 Zhejiang, China.
ACS Nano. 2024 Sep 17;18(37):25880-25892. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.4c09678. Epub 2024 Sep 5.
Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) exhibit promising prospects in becoming large-scale energy storage systems due to environmental friendliness, high security, and low cost. However, the growth of Zn dendrites and side reactions remain heady obstacles for the practical application of AZIBs. To solve these challenges, a functionalized Janus separator is successfully constructed by coating halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) on glass fiber (GF). Impressively, the different electronegativity on the inner and outer surfaces of HNTs endows the HNT-GF separator with ion-sieving property, leading to a significantly high transference number of Zn ( = 0.71). Meanwhile, the HNT-GF separator works as an interfacial ion comb to regular Zn flux and realizes multisite progressive nucleation, bringing decreased nucleation overpotential and uniform Zn deposition. Consequently, the HNT-GF separator enables the Zn anode to display an ultralong plating/stripping life of 3000 h and high rate tolerance with a stable long cycle life even under a density of 50 mA cm. Moreover, the full cell represents an ultrastable cycling stability with a high capacity retention of 93.4% even after 1000 cycles at a current density of 2 A g. This work provides a convenient method for the separator modification of AZIBs.
水系锌离子电池（AZIBs）由于环境友好、安全性高和成本低，在成为大规模储能系统方面展现出广阔前景。然而，锌枝晶的生长和副反应仍然是AZIBs实际应用中的严峻障碍。为了解决这些挑战，通过在玻璃纤维（GF）上涂覆埃洛石纳米管（HNTs）成功构建了一种功能化的Janus隔膜。令人印象深刻的是，HNTs内外表面不同的电负性赋予了HNT-GF隔膜离子筛分性能，导致锌的迁移数显著提高（t = 0.71）。同时，HNT-GF隔膜作为界面离子梳来规整锌离子通量并实现多位点渐进成核，降低了成核过电位并实现了锌的均匀沉积。因此，HNT-GF隔膜使锌负极能够展现出3000小时的超长镀覆/剥离寿命以及高倍率耐受性，即使在50 mA cm的电流密度下也具有稳定的长循环寿命。此外，全电池表现出超稳定的循环稳定性，即使在2 A g的电流密度下循环1000次后仍具有93.4%的高容量保持率。这项工作为AZIBs的隔膜改性提供了一种简便方法。
