Regulating Zinc Deposition Behaviors by the Conditioner of PAN Separator for Zinc‐Ion Batteries

• Published in: Advanced functional materials 2022-04, Vol.32 (14), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Fang, Yun, Xie, Xuesong, Zhang, Bingyao, Chai, Yizhao, Lu, Bingan, Liu, Mengke, Zhou, Jiang, Liang, Shuquan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anodes; Cost effectiveness; Crystallography; Dendritic structure; Deposition; Design modifications; Electric fields; Energy storage; Functional groups; Ion flux; Materials science; Nanofibers; Nucleation; Polyacrylonitrile; polyacrylonitrile separator; Separators; single‐ion transport; Storage batteries; Zinc; zinc ion batteries; Zn dendrite growth suppression
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202109671

Aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (AZIBs) are promising candidates for large‐scale energy storage due to the high safety and cost effectiveness. Yet it is suffered from the obscurely uncontrolled Zn2+ deposition that accumulates together and easily penetrates the separator. Here, a 3D long‐range ordered polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber separator is designed to overcome this barrier. The N atoms on the surface of separator uniformly distribute the ion flux and guide the cation transport through available N–Zn bonds. Hence, the electric field on the anode is evenly distributed, which helps to guide the nucleation, growth, and deposition of zinc ions. Benefit from this functional group, a Zn symmetric cell with PAN separator shows a long‐term stability and dendrite‐free deposition layer with a preferred (101) crystallographic orientation. Meanwhile, the Zn/NH4V4O10 cells display high specific capacity and excellent long‐term durability of 89.2% capacity retention after 1500 cycles at 10 A g−1. This work demonstrates the design of functional separator provides an effective way to modify Zn2+ deposition behavior and achieve a dendrite‐free Zn metal anode. An ultra‐thin long‐range ordered polyacrylonitrile (PAN) separator realizing the regulation of cation transport and uniform ion flux distribution is reported. The PAN separator leads to a dendrite‐free deposition layer with a preferred (101) crystal orientation through the NZn bond. Benefiting from the micro‐regulated Zn2+ migration, the high capacity retention (89.2% after 1500 cycles) can be achieved at 10 A g−1.