An anticorrosive zinc metal anode with ultra-long cycle life over one year

Metallic zinc has been considered an ideal anode material in aqueous Zn-based batteries due to its high capacity and low redox potential. In addition to dendrites, Zn anodes suffer an additional threat from the inevitable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) that occurs during the electrochemical proce...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy & environmental science 2022-04, Vol.15 (4), p.1638-1646
Main Authors: Xiao, Ping, Li, Haobo, Fu, Jinzhou, Zeng, Cheng, Zhao, Yinghe, Zhai, Tianyou, Li, Huiqiao
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anodes
Batteries
Cathodes
Corrosion prevention
Dendrites
Electrochemistry
Electrode materials
Hydrogen evolution reactions
Indium
Manganese dioxide
Metal hydroxides
Morphology
Plating
Redox potential
Scanning electron microscopy
Zinc
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Metallic zinc has been considered an ideal anode material in aqueous Zn-based batteries due to its high capacity and low redox potential. In addition to dendrites, Zn anodes suffer an additional threat from the inevitable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) that occurs during the electrochemical process. This HER issue plays a rather insidious role in decreasing the performance of Zn anodes and has not yet been clearly elucidated. Herein, the suppression of HER is achieved by modifying the Zn anode with indium, enabling an ultra-dense and rock-like plating morphology without the formation of zinc hydroxide sulfate hydrate. Through detailed observations using scanning electron microscopy, the relationship between morphology evolution and HER under different current densities and during cycling has been highlighted. Additionally, both reduced polarizations for Zn plating and stripping are achieved after modification. Very impressively, the cycle life of the Zn symmetric cell is dramatically improved from 70 h to over 1 year (>9000 h) after indium modification. The full cells coupled with MnO 2 cathodes can deliver 250 mA h g −1 after 300 cycles with a capacity retention of 99%. This work reveals that the suppression of HER is a significant route to promote the performance of Zn anodes. We modify Zn anodes with island-distributed indium (Zn@In). The effective suppression of hydrogen evolution by Zn@In enables an ultra-dense and rock-like Zn plating morphology, extending the cycling life of a Zn symmetrical cell to over one year.
ISSN:1754-5692
1754-5706
DOI:10.1039/d1ee03882f