Abstract
Owing to its low cost and high safety, metallic zinc has received considerable attention as an anode material for zinc aqueous batteries (ZIBs). However, the Zn metal instability as a result ultrafast of obstinate dendrite formation, free-water-induced parasite reactions, and corrosive electrolytes has detrimental effects on the implementation of ZIBs. We present an alternative stable electrolyte for ZIBs based on a zinc chloride/ethylene glycol deep eutectic solvent (DES). This electrolyte consists of abundant low-cost materials and a utilizable Zn2+ concentration of approximately 1 M. It combines the advantages of the aqueous and DES media to provide safe and reversible Zn plating/stripping with a two-fold increase in the cycling life compared to that of conventional aqueous electrolytes. With these advantages, the Zn symmetric cell operates at 0.2 mA cm−2 for 300 h. Due to its high efficiency and compositional versatility, this electrolyte enables the investigation of a non-aqueous electrolyte family for ZIBs that fulfill grid-scale electrical energy storage requirements.
Highlights
Zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) have attracted worldwide interest for their application in next-generation energy storage devices due to their notable characteristics, such as cost effectiveness, eco-friendliness, high safety, resource abundance, high volumetric capacity, and aqueous electrolyte compatibility (Hu et al, 2020; Wang et al, 2020a; Hansen and Liu, 2021)
Upon mixing with ethylene glycol (EG), the hydroxyl groups of EG engage with the Zn metal atoms, thereby decreasing the Cl–Zn–Cl angles
This is due to the partly ionic character of ZnCl2, and the high EG content in the complexes causes a decrease in the electron density at the Zn–Cl bond critical point
Summary
Zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) have attracted worldwide interest for their application in next-generation energy storage devices due to their notable characteristics, such as cost effectiveness, eco-friendliness, high safety, resource abundance, high volumetric capacity, and aqueous electrolyte compatibility (Hu et al, 2020; Wang et al, 2020a; Hansen and Liu, 2021). The use of water-in-salt (WIS) electrolytes, such as highly concentrated Zn-TFSI, ZnCl2, LiTFSI/Zn. DES-Electrolyte for Aqueous Zn Batteries [N(SO2CF3)2]2, LiN(SO2CF3), and LiN(SO2CF3)2/CF3SO3Li, offers an excellent strategy for engineering a high-stability Zn anode by forming a solvation sheath structure of the Zn2+ cation, which eliminates any water-induced side reactions (Zhang et al, 2018a; Zhao et al, 2019; Kao-ian et al, 2021). DES-Electrolyte for Aqueous Zn Batteries [N(SO2CF3)2]2, LiN(SO2CF3), and LiN(SO2CF3)2/CF3SO3Li, offers an excellent strategy for engineering a high-stability Zn anode by forming a solvation sheath structure of the Zn2+ cation, which eliminates any water-induced side reactions (Zhang et al, 2018a; Zhao et al, 2019; Kao-ian et al, 2021) Another advantage of WIS electrolytes over dilute electrolytes is the thermodynamically shifted potential equilibrium of the cationintercalation reaction.
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