Li Haohan, Li Wenpo, Zhou Pengcheng, Chen Xiaohong, Shang Bo, Li Qian
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 401331, China.
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 401331, China.
J Colloid Interface Sci. 2025 Mar;681:159-168. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.11.182. Epub 2024 Nov 26.
Large-scale energy storage applications can greatly benefit from the low-cost and safe zinc metal anode. However, corrosion, side reactions and dendrite growth in water significantly inhibit the cycle life of zinc-ion batteries. Here, 2-ethyl-1H-benzimidazole (EHB), a strong zincophilic and hydrophobic structure, is introduced into the ZnSO (ZS) electrolyte to adjust the nucleation overpotential in Zinc-ion batteries for the initial time. The strong zincophilic side of EHB firmly adheres to the zinc anode, while the hydrophobic end further protects the zinc anode from the influence of active water molecules due to steric effect. With the addition of EHB, the nucleation overpotential of the modified electrolyte (ZS-EHB) increases from 53.0 mV to 74.2 mV at 1 mA cm. Consequently, the inhibition efficiency of Zn anode in ZS-EHB electrolyte exceeds 90 %, and the lifespan of the symmetric Zn||Zn cells in ZS-HEB electrolyte reaches 6200 h at 5 mA cm and over 2400 h at 8 mA cm, nearly 80-fold longer than that of the cells in ZS electrolyte. Furthermore, the designed Zn||α-MnO cells can still deliver a consistent discharge capacity of 120.1 mAh g even after 500 cycles. The research offers a promising route for creating zinc anode electrolyte additives.
大规模储能应用可以从低成本且安全的锌金属负极中受益匪浅。然而，水中的腐蚀、副反应和枝晶生长显著抑制了锌离子电池的循环寿命。在此，首次将具有强亲锌性和疏水性结构的2-乙基-1H-苯并咪唑（EHB）引入ZnSO（ZS）电解液中，以调节锌离子电池中的成核过电位。EHB的强亲锌性一侧牢固地附着在锌负极上，而疏水端由于空间位阻效应进一步保护锌负极免受活性水分子的影响。随着EHB的加入，在1 mA cm时，改性电解液（ZS-EHB）的成核过电位从53.0 mV增加到74.2 mV。因此，ZS-EHB电解液中锌负极的抑制效率超过90%，ZS-HEB电解液中对称Zn||Zn电池的寿命在5 mA cm时达到6200 h，在8 mA cm时超过2400 h，几乎是ZS电解液中电池寿命的80倍。此外，所设计的Zn||α-MnO电池即使在500次循环后仍能提供120.1 mAh g的稳定放电容量。该研究为开发锌负极电解液添加剂提供了一条有前景的途径。
