Aqueous zinc metal batteries (AZMBs) have drawn great attention due to the high theoretical capacity, low redox potential, and abundance reserves. However, the practical application of rechargeable AZMBs are hindered by the poor reversibility of Zn metal anode, owing to easy dendrite growth and serious side reactions. Herein, the preparation of heterogeneous interfacial film with highly dispersed and confined zinc salt in a 2D channel by coassembling polyamide 6, zinc trifluoromethanesulfonate, and layered double hydroxides, which significantly suppresses the dendrite formation, H2 evolution reaction as well as O2 corrosion is reported. The as‐developed Zn anodes exhibit a long cycling life up to 1450 h with low reversible deposition potential. Moreover, the assembled Zn||Mn battery delivers a high initial capacity of 321 mAh g−1 and a low capacity decay of ≈0.05% per cycle after 590 cycles, which is promising for high‐performance AZMBs. A fluorescent film to realize the in situ observation of the Zn anode during cycling, which provides a new chance for visual observation of the working state of the Zn interface, is also assembled.
Room temperature liquid NaK alloy is a promising candidate for high performance metal batteries, due to its dendrite-free property and high energy density. However, its practical application is hindered by the high surface tension of liquid NaK, which causes difficulties in maintaining a stable contact with a current collector. Here, the authors demonstrate the extraordinary stable confinement of NaK alloy at room temperature by constructing a super-wetting substrate, which is based on highly dispersed cobalt-single-atom carbon nanoarrays. The developed liquid anode electrode prevented successfully the leakage of NaK alloy even in harsh stress (>5 MPa) or sharp shock conditions. The symmetric cells achieved ultra-long reversible plating/stripping cycling life in both Na-ion (>1010 hrs) and K-ion electrolytes (>4000 hrs) at 10 mA cm −2 /10 mAh cm −2 . Upon fitting with Na 3 V 2 (PO 4 ) 3 , the NaK assembled full battery provided high energy density (332.6 kWh kg −1 ) and power density (11.05 kW kg −1 ) with excellent stability after >21600 cycles, which is the best value reported so far. The prepared pouch cell was able to drive a four-axis aircraft, demonstrating a great prospect in practical application. This work offers a new approach in the preparation of advanced dendrite-free liquid metal anodes with promising applications in electrochemical energy storage.
Electricity produced from renewable energy sources should be stored in energy storage devices efficiently due to large fluctuations in generation. The lithium metal battery is one of the most promising energy storage devices due to its high energy densities. However, continuous dendrite growth and huge volumetric changes of the lithium metal anode have hindered practical applications. Herein, we demonstrate a strategy to fabricate a dendrite-free Li metal anode by an ultrathin LiCoO 2 layered modified conductive carbon cloth (CC) substrate (CC/ LCO-UTF), where LiCoO 2 , serving as a stable lithiophilic interface, enables a uniform nucleation and dendrite-free growth of the metal Li. As a result, a stable cycling performance over 1960 h with a lower overpotential of ∼20 mV is achieved at a current density of 2 mA cm −2 , which is superior to the most recent reports. Moreover, the assembled Li||LFP and Li||S full cells with the CC/LCO-UTF@Li anode deliver a superior electrochemical performance. These findings are expected to provide a new strategy to design an advanced dendrite-free Li metal anode toward future high-performance Li metal batteries.
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