An In Situ Cross‐Linked Nonaqueous Polymer Electrolyte for Zinc‐Metal Polymer Batteries and Hybrid Supercapacitors

Abstract

This work reports the facile synthesis of nonaqueous zinc‐ion conducting polymer electrolyte (ZIP) membranes using an ultraviolet (UV)‐light‐induced photopolymerization technique, with room temperature (RT) ionic conductivity values in the order of 10−3 S cm−1. The ZIP membranes demonstrate excellent physicochemical and electrochemical properties, including an electrochemical stability window of >2.4 V versus Zn|Zn2+ and dendrite‐free plating/stripping processes in symmetric Zn||Zn cells. Besides, a UV‐polymerization‐assisted in situ process is developed to produce ZIP (abbreviated i‐ZIP), which is adopted for the first time to fabricate a nonaqueous zinc‐metal polymer battery (ZMPB; VOPO4|i‐ZIP|Zn) and zinc‐metal hybrid polymer supercapacitor (ZMPS; activated carbon|i‐ZIP|Zn) cells. The VOPO4 cathode employed in ZMPB possesses a layered morphology, exhibiting a high average operating voltage of ≈1.2 V. As compared to the conventional polymer cell assembling approach using the ex situ process, the in situ process is simple and it enhances the overall electrochemical performance, which enables the widespread intrusion of ZMPBs and ZMPSs into the application domain. Indeed, considering the promising aspects of the proposed ZIP and its easy processability, this work opens up a new direction for the emergence of the zinc‐based energy storage technologies.

In situpolymerization process: an essential design tool for lithium polymer batteries

“…conducting PEs are also being noticed with the surge in interest towards batteries beyond lithium chemistry. [282][283][284][285][286][287][288][289] This underlines that the concomitant development of both SPEs and GPEs are indeed crucial for pushing the further development of LPBs and other EES technologies. It is worth mentioning that the LPBs are already/under commercialization by companies like IONIC MATERIALS INC, 290 A-123 Systems, DNK Power, 291 Panasonic, and LG Chem, and Bolloré.…”

Towards High‐Performance Zinc‐Based Hybrid Supercapacitors via Macropores‐Based Charge Storage in Organic Electrolytes

“…Chemie Forschungsartikel 9700 www.angewandte.de previous reports, [44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] we calculated the energy density (Wh kg À1 )o ft he MOF-PC//Zn cells only based on the mass of active material (i.e., MOF-PC) in cathode without considering the mass of Zn anode.A ss hown in Figure 4b,t he cell with the mass loading of 1mgcm À2 shows ah igh energy density of 58.1 Wh kg À1 at 112 Wkg À1 ,a nd the cell with the mass loading of 10 mg cm À2 exhibits an energy density of 48.6 Wh kg À1 at 113 Wkg À1 (see green lines in Figure 4b). Obviously,when calculated only based on the mass of MOF-PC in cathode,t he energy density achieved at al ow mass loading (1 mg cm À2 )issuperior to that achieved at ahigh mass loading (10 mg cm À2 ).…”

Towards High‐Performance Zinc‐Based Hybrid Supercapacitors via Macropores‐Based Charge Storage in Organic Electrolytes

“…In recent years, many Zn‐based hybrid supercapacitors with promising performances have been reported [39–58] . However, their practical application still faces many obstacles.…”

“…Secondly, in the mild aqueous electrolyte containing Zn 2+ (pH 4–5), the undesired H 2 evolution and irreversible by‐products on anode aggravate corrosion of Zn electrode and issue of dendrites [18] . In fact, most of the reported long‐term cycling stability of Zn‐based aqueous batteries and hybrid supercapacitors were achieved by much excessive Zn anode, showing extremely low Zn‐utilization (less than 0.6 %) [47–58] . Especially, almost all the reported batteries and supercapacitors with excellent energy densities are evaluated only based on the active mass of cathode [44–58] .…”

“…Besides the issues of Zn anode, the sluggish diffusion of solvated Zn 2+ and corresponding anions in the micropores and/or mesopores of carbon cathode much limit the rate performance of Zn‐based hybrid supercapacitors. Many reported Zn‐based hybrid supercapacitors with exciting rate performances are based on a low mass loading (less than 2 mg cm −2 ) [47–58] because the ion diffusion limitations are getting greater in thicker electrodes (with higher mass loading) [59] . Recently, Grey et al.…”