Aqueous
zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) are considered as a promising
energy storage system due to their low cost and high safety merits.
However, they suffer from the challenge of uncontrollable dendrite
growth due to a non-uniform zinc deposition, which increases internal
resistance and causes battery failure. Herein, Ag coating fabricated
by a facile surface chemistry route on zinc metal was developed to
guide uniform zinc deposition. Ag-coated Zn shows improved electrolyte
wettability, a small zinc deposition overpotential, and fast kinetics
for zinc deposition/dissolution. Direct optical visualization and
scanning electron microscopy images show uniform zinc deposition due
to the introduction of Ag coating. As a result, the Ag-coated Zn anode
can sustain up to 1450 h of repeated plating/stripping with a low
overpotential in symmetric cells at a current density of 0.2 mA cm–2, while an improved performance is realized for full
cells paired with a V2O5-based cathode. This
work provides a facile and effective approach to improve the electrochemical
performance of ZIBs.
Sodium metal is the ultimate anode for next generation high-energy-density sodium metal batteries due to its superior theoretical specific capacity, low redox potential, and natural abundance. However, sodium metal suffers...
Electrode
materials with a high performance and stable cycling
have been commercialized, but the utilization of state-of-the-art
Li-ion batteries in high-current rate applications is restricted because
of limitations in other battery components, in particular, the lack
of an efficient binder. Herein, a novel multicomponent polymer gel
binder (PGB) is presented, comprising the biopolymer chitosan as the
host, embedded with the 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium dicyanamide
(PYR14DCA) ionic liquid and the lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide
(LiTFSI) salt. The multicomponent approach leads to carbon black arrangement
along well-distributed chitosan chains in the electrodes, forming
a highly electronic conductive network. Furthermore, the plasticizing
effect of the ionic liquid leads to an enhanced ionic conductivity.
As a result, shorter charge-transfer paths are enabled, leading to
an exceptionally high rate capability in LiFePO4 and Li4Ti5O12 half cells, up to 50C. LiFePO4||Li4Ti5O12 full cells using
the PGB for both electrodes also demonstrated stable cycling at 10C,
with an impressively high discharge capacity of 173 mA h·g–1 after 1000 cycles. In addition, freestanding electrodes
could also be realized and functioning flexible Li-ion cells were
successfully demonstrated. Thus, the novel water-processable binder
offers multifaceted advantages, making the approach highly promising
for industrial implementation.
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