Aqueous batteries are promising energy storage systems but are hindered by the limited selection of anodes and narrow electrochemical window to achieve satisfactory cyclability and decent energy density. Here, we design aqueous hybrid Na-Zn batteries by using a carbon-coated Zn (Zn@C) anode, 8 M NaClO + 0.4 M Zn(CFSO) concentrated electrolyte coupled with NASICON-structured cathodes. The Zn@C anode achieves stable Zn stripping/plating and improved kinetics without Zn dendrite formation due to the porous carbon film facilitating homogeneous current distribution and Zn deposition. Furthermore, the concentrated electrolyte offers a large electrochemical window (∼2.5 V) and permits stable cycling of cathodes. As a result, the hybrid batteries exhibit extraordinary performance including high voltage, high energy density (100-150 Wh kg for half battery and 71 Wh kg for full battery), and excellent cycling stability of 1000 cycles.
Liquid metal batteries (LMBs), with the merits of long
lifespan
and low cost, are deemed as one of the most promising energy storage
technologies for large-scale energy storage applications due to the
use of liquid metal electrodes and molten salt electrolytes. However,
the consequent problem is that the poor wettability between graphite-based
collectors and the liquid metal/alloy electrodes leads to large contact
resistance, which limits the efficiency and stability of the battery.
In this work, a transition layer in situ formed on a graphite-based
positive electrode current collector by Ti additive is designed for
the first time, which increases the wettability between the positive
alloy and the current collector and improves the voltage efficiency
of the Li||Sb-Sn cell from 85.6 to 88.4%. These results provide new
ideas for the design of high-efficiency LMBs.
The dendrite problem of zinc anodes leads to poor cyclic life and safety hazards, which seriously hinders the development of aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs). Herein, we propose a new strategy to develop textured zinc anodes with preferential orientation (002) by cleavage fracture along the interface of zinc foil and low lattice mismatched CuZn 5 alloy, which is highly reversible, long-life, and dendrite-free. The sequentially distributed (002) cleavage texture has high surface energy and strong binding energy with zinc atoms, which can significantly reduce the nucleation barrier of zinc and facilitate uniform zinc deposition. Furthermore, the cleavage texture of (002) planes promotes the epitaxial growth of zinc and prevents the dendrite formation. As a result, the zinc anode with the (002) cleavage plane (ZCP (002) ) possesses an ultralong lifetime of about 2500 h in 1 mA cm −2 and 1 mA h cm −2 of symmetric battery and a high average Coulombic efficiency (99.7%) over 925 cycles in ZCP (002) |Cu asymmetric cells. This work provides new insights into modifying metal anodes from the perspective of crystallographic orientation and optimizing zinc anodes for the large-scale application of ZIBs.
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