Advanced Zinc Anode with Nitrogen‐Doping Interface Induced by Plasma Surface Treatment

Abstract

Aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (ZIBs) are one of the most ideal candidates for grid‐scale energy storage applications due to their excellent price and safety advantages. However, formation of Zn dendrites and continuous side reactions during cycling result in serious instability problems for ZIBs. In this work, the authors develop a facile and versatile plasma‐induced nitrogen‐doped Zn (N‐Zn) foil for dendrite‐free Zn metal anode. Benefitting from the uniform nucleation sites and enhanced surface kinetics, the N‐Zn anode exhibits exceptionally low overpotential (around 23 mV) at 1 mA cm−2 and can be cycled for over 3000 h under 1 mA cm−2 because of the enhanced interface behavior. The potential application of N‐Zn anode is also confirmed by introducing a full Zn/MnO2 battery with outstanding capacity stability for 2000 cycles at 1 A g–1. Overall, this work offers new fundamental insights into homogenizing Zn electrodeposition processes by pre‐introduced active nucleation sites and provides a novel direction of interface design engineering for ultra‐stable Zn metal anode.

A polyamino acid with zincophilic chains enabling high-performance Zn anodes

“…After PAA was added to the ZnSO 4 electrolyte, the corrosion potential increased from −0.893 V to −0.887 V, indicative of a decreased tendency for corrosion reactions. 49 Nevertheless, the addition of AA to the ZnSO 4 electrolyte caused obvious corrosion because the corrosion potential decreased to −0.977 V and the corrosion current also increased, which is consistent with the result of the soaking experiment.…”

Highly Reversible Zn Metal Anodes Realized by Synergistically Enhancing Ion Migration Kinetics and Regulating Surface Energy

“…e) The electrochemical performance comparison of SCOFs@Zn, NSCOFs@Zn, and bare Zn symmetric cells under 10.0 mA cm −2 , 2.0 mAh cm −2 . f) Comparison of the Zn plating/stripping reversibility of SCOFs@Zn anode with currently reported high-performance Zn anode based on artificial interface modification: ZnF 2 @Zn, [39] TiO 2 -F@Zn, [40] CNG@Zn, [19] 3D TiO 2 @Zn, [41] N-doped Zn, [42] MXene@Zn, [43] CDs@Zn, [44] TCNQ@Zn, [25] and TFA-AN@Zn. [23] g) CE comparison of the asymmetrical SCOFs@Cu||Zn, NSCOFs@Cu||Zn and bare Cu||Zn cells at 5 mA cm −2 with Zn plating capacity of 1 mAh cm −2 .…”

A cigarette filter-derived nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticle coating layer for stable Zn-ion battery anodes

“…The pore sizes of the N-CNPs are mainly distributed within the range of 1.7 and 11 nm, while the surface area is 19.05 m 2 g -1 , indicating a special microporous-mesoporous structure. Zincophilic groups and special microporousmesoporous structures are favorable for ion adsorption and shortening the ion transfer paths [30] . To prove the adsorption of N-CNPs towards Zn 2+ ions in the electrolyte, a free-standing N-CNP membrane was soaked into the 3 M Zn(CF 3 SO 3 ) 2 electrolyte for a month and examined by XPS after washing.…”