Role of Acetonitrile Additive in Enhanced Performances of Aqueous Zn Anodes

Abstract

Zinc-ion batteries have been proposed as promising candidates to address ever-growing demands for energy storage and limited resources available for the currently used lithium-battery systems. Despite their promise, the apparent advantages of aqueous zinc-ion batteries (low cost and high energy density) are still overshadowed by uncontrolled water interactions at the zinc metal-electrolyte interface, such as the hydrogen evolution reaction and electrode corrosion. A number of different strategies – e.g., water-in-salt, addition of chelating agents and/or co-solvents – have been proposed to overcome the aforementioned interfacial problems. Among them, the addition of acetonitrile to aqueous ZnSO4-based electrolytes has shown great promise, with reports of improved Coulombic efficiencies and increased cycle life. However, the actual role of this additive remains unclear. In this work, we determine the mechanistic principles behind the participation of acetonitrile in enhancing the performance of aqueous Zn batteries. For this purpose, we utilized a combination of X-ray absorption and Raman spectroscopies, cyclic voltammetry, and galvanostatic coin cell cycling. Our results indicate that the addition of acetonitrile perturbs the interfacial solvation structure, rather than the bulk. Specifically, acetonitrile does not penetrate the first solvation shell of the Zn2+ ion, but does modify interfacial solvation behavior, likely by physisorption to the electrode surface. The Coulombic efficiency of half cells was found to depend on electrode material, employed current density and capacity, and only moderately on acetonitrile concentration. Overall, this works points strongly to the need for systematic evaluation of battery performance in co-solvent systems, and provides a new framework for future efforts to optimize ion transport and performance in zinc-ion batteries._______________________The submitted manuscript has been created by UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory (“Argonne”). Argonne, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. The U.S. Government retains for itself, and others acting on its behalf, a paid-up nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in said article to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the Government. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan. http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan