A promising approach to prepare gel electrolyte and electrocatalyst derived from natural long-staple cotton for high-performance flexible Zn-air battery

Abstract

Due to the high energy density and risk-free operation, flexible zinc–air batteries (ZABs) have the potential to be energy sources for wearable electronic devices. Nonetheless, the performance of quasi-solid-state gel electrolytes diminishes progressively throughout the ion-exchange process, primarily due to water evaporation on the exposed cathode side, which shortens the useful lifetime of ZABs. Herein, we propose a distinctive gel polymer electrolyte membrane comprising cotton fiber (CF) from natural long-staple cotton and polyvinyl acetate (PVA) to effectively extend the battery lifespan, which is due to that the addition of CF improves surface wettability, liquid absorption and retention, and ionic conductivity (1.53 × 10−2 S cm−1) compared with single PVA electrolyte membrane. We also prepare a composite electrocatalyst (Co-N-C@GCF-950) by pyrolyzing the precursor of ZIF-67 in situ grown on the cotton fiber at 950 ℃. The flexible ZAB assembled with Co-N-C@GCF-950 as the cathode electrocatalyst and the CF-PVA membrane as the gel electrolyte shows a high open-circuit voltage of 1.5 V, and a stable charge-discharge voltage gap of 0.8 V for 11-h lifespan at a current density of 2 mA cm−2 under various bending conditions, which guides the future way of the application potential of environmental cotton fibers in the multiaspects for flexible metal-air batteries.