The reversibility of metal anode is af undamental challenge to the lifetime of rechargeable batteries.T hough being widely employed in aqueous energy storage systems, metallic zinc suffers from dendrite formation that severely hinders its applications.H ere we report texturing Zn as an effective way to address the issue of zinc dendrite.Anin-plane oriented Zn texture with preferentially exposed (002) basal plane is demonstrated via as ulfonate anion-induced electrodeposition, noting no solid report on (002) textured Zn till now. Anion-induced reconstruction of zinc coordination is revealed to be responsible for the texture formation. Benchmarking against its (101) textured-counterpart by the conventional sulphate-based electrolyte,the Zn (002) texture enables highly reversible stripping/plating at ah igh current density of 10 mA cm À2 ,s howing its dendrite-free characteristics.T he Zn (002) texture-based aqueous zinc battery exhibits excellent cycling stability.T he developed anion texturing approach provides ap athwayt owards exploring zinc chemistry and prospering aqueous rechargeable batteries.

Rechargeable zinc-ion batteries (RZIB) present an interesting alternative to rechargeable Li-ion batteries. Among the active materials, layered vanadium-based oxides show a poor cell voltage but modifying this structure by attaching a phosphate group to the vanadium redox center can drastically enhance the cathode voltage. With this layered VOPO4 material, we demonstrate that preintercalating polypyrrole between crystallographic layers and using electrolyte with controlled water amounts are two absolutely essential conditions for easy and reversible Zn2+ (de)­intercalation, thus vastly improving battery outputs and long-term capacity retention. We establish that the rational design of open-layered structures hinges imperatively on factors like host structural integrity and electrode–electrolyte compatibility in delivering the performance of multivalent-ion batteries.

Electrocatalysts are one of the most important parts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) to overcome the sluggish kinetics. Herein, amorphous Fe-Ni-P-B-O (FNPBO) nanocages as efficient OER catalysts are synthesized by a simple low-cost and scalable method at room temperature. The samples are chemically stable, in clear contrast to reported unstable or even pyrophoric boride samples. The Fe/Ni ratio of the FNPBO nanocages can be continuously adjusted to optimize the OER catalytic performance. The FNPBO nanocages composed of multicomponent elements can weaken the metal-metal bonds thus rearranging the electron density around the catalytic metal atom centers and reducing the energy barrier for intermediate formation. Hence the optimized FNPBO (Fe6.4Ni16.1P12.9B4.3O60.2) catalyst shows superior intrinsic electrocatalytic activity for OER. The low overpotential to afford the current density of 10 mA cm -2 (236 mV), the small Tafel slope (39 mV dec -1 ), and the high specific current density (26.44 mA cm -2 ) at a given overpotential of 300 mV make a sharp contrast to state-of-the-art RuO2 (327 mV, 136 mV dec -1 , and 0.028 mA cm -2 , respectively). Clean energy is highly desired for clean and sustainable future. [1][2][3] Hydrogen has been considered as an ideal alternative fuel to replace gasoline, which is environmental friendly with a

No abstract

The reversibility of metal anode is a fundamental challenge to the lifetime of rechargeable batteries. Though being widely employed in aqueous energy storage systems, metallic zinc suffers from dendrite formation that severely hinders its applications. Here we report texturing Zn as an effective way to address the issue of zinc dendrite. An in‐plane oriented Zn texture with preferentially exposed (002) basal plane is demonstrated via a sulfonate anion‐induced electrodeposition, noting no solid report on (002) textured Zn till now. Anion‐induced reconstruction of zinc coordination is revealed to be responsible for the texture formation. Benchmarking against its (101) textured‐counterpart by the conventional sulphate‐based electrolyte, the Zn (002) texture enables highly reversible stripping/plating at a high current density of 10 mA cm−2, showing its dendrite‐free characteristics. The Zn (002) texture‐based aqueous zinc battery exhibits excellent cycling stability. The developed anion texturing approach provides a pathway towards exploring zinc chemistry and prospering aqueous rechargeable batteries.

Rechargeable zinc-ion batteries (RZIBs) are mostly powered by aqueous electrolytes. However, uncontrolled water interactions often confer a small voltage window and poor battery capacity retention. Here, we explore replacing water with ethylene glycol as the primary solvent in zinc electrolyte formulations. The assembled batteries reveal suppressed electrolyte-induced parasitic reactions, leading to (1) expanded voltage stability windows up to 2.2 V, (2) prolonged zinc stripping/plating stability up to 2.4 times longer compared to the water-based counterparts, and (3) doubled cathode capacity retentions as observed in full-cell Zn-FeVO 4 RZIBs. Using a combination of synchrotron EXAFS and FTIR, we investigate the molecular level salt-solvent interactions and explain how the chelation ability of EG ligands reduces parasitic reactions to enable the enhanced electrochemical performances. The structural insights should provide guidelines on the selection of salt, concentration, and chelating solvents for robust multivalent-ion battery systems.

Aqueous rechargeable zinc-ion batteries are emerging as attractive alternatives for postlithium-ion batteries. However, their electrochemical performances are restricted by the narrow working window of materials in aqueous electrolytes. Herein, Ni-mediated VO 2 -B nanobelt ((Ni)VO 2 ) has been designed to optimize the intrinsic electronic structure of VO 2 -B, and thus achieve much more enhanced zinc-ion storage. Specifically, the Zn/(Ni)VO 2 battery yields good rate capability (182.0 mAh g -1 at 5 A g -1 ) with superior cycling stability (130.6 mAh g -1 at 10 A g -1 after 2000 cycles). Experimental and theoretical methods reveal that the introduction of Ni 2+ in the VO 2 tunnel structure can effectively provide high surface reactivity and improve the intrinsic electronic configurations, thus resulting in good kinetics. Furthermore, H + and Zn 2+ co-intercalation processes are determined via in-situ X-ray diffraction and supported by ex-situ characterizations. Additionally, quasi-solid-state Zn/(Ni)VO 2 soft-packaged batteries are assembled and provide flexibility in battery design for practical applications. The results provide insight into the interrelationships between the intrinsic electronic structure of the cathode and overall electrochemical performance.

A VO2–B holey nanobelt was rationally proposed as a high-performing cathode material for aqueous aluminium-ion batteries.