Designing a Bimodal BaTiO₃ Artificial Layer to Boost the Dielectric Effect toward Highly Reversible Dendrite-Free Zn Metal Anodes

Abstract

With the growing interest in suppressing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion, the implementation of electrical energy storage devices for efficiently utilizing renewable energy is expanding worldwide. Zn-ion batteries are attractive for energy storage because of their safety, eco-friendliness, high energy density, and low cost. However, their commercialization is hindered by the poor rechargeability of the zinc anode because of Zn dendrite growth and hydrogen evolution. Herein, we present the application of an artificial layer composed of bimodal BaTiO 3 particles on Zn metal to boost the dielectric properties and thus enhance the reversibility of Zn anodes during long-term cycling. The BaTiO 3 layer induces electric polarization under external electric fields, causing the Zn ions to move sequentially toward the Zn anode. Moreover, its mechanical characteristics alleviate the volume changes between the BaTiO 3 layer and Zn metal. Consequently, Zn dendrite growth is effectively inhibited, and the electrochemical performance is significantly improved in Zn|Zn symmetric cells, resulting in a low overvoltage (39 mV) and stable cycling (800 h) at 1 mA cm −2 . Moreover, the Zn-ion full cell using an α-MnO 2 cathode exhibits consistent capacity retention up to 380 cycles. This study demonstrates a new strategy to economically and readily suppress dendrite formation by using bimodal dielectric particles as artificial layers to stabilize metal-based batteries.

3D Printing of MXene‐Enhanced Ferroelectric Polymer for Ultrastable Zinc Anodes

“…With the addition of MXene nanosheets, the cycle life of P-0.5%MXene coated zinc electrode can reach more than 4200 h, superior to other previously reported results (Table S1, Supporting Information). [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] The symmetric cells using the PVDF-s-Zn, P-0.1%MXene-Zn, P-0.25%MXene-Zn, and P-1.0%MXene-Zn displayed poor cycling stability with large voltage fluctuations and rapid failure (Figure S10, Supporting Information). What's more, compared with some reported research work, [25,26,28,30,12,[33][34][35] the P-0.5%MXene-Zn symmetrical cell in this study also shows low voltage hysteresis (Table S2, Supporting Information).…”

Understanding the Electrical Mechanisms in Aqueous Zinc Metal Batteries: From Electrostatic Interactions to Electric Field Regulation

“…[87] Dielectric materials, such as ZrO 2 , SiO 2 , BaTiO 3 , tetragonal KTa 0.54 Nb 0.46 O 3 , and Si 3 N 4 can be easily polarized under an external electric field. [87][88][89][90][91] Using dielectric materials to construct protective layers on Zn anodes and synthesize/modify separators has been reported to enhance the localized electric field strength between cathodes and anodes. [92] The dielectric materials respond to the external electric field by means of induction, resulting in the position shift of the negative charge and positive charge centers inside the dielectric materials.…”

Strategies for Optimizing the Zn Anode/Electrolyte Interfaces Toward Stable Zn‐Based Batteries

“…Motivated by the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) coating on the Li anode surface, inorganic AILs are previously reported to prevent Zn anodes from aqueous electrolytes. To date, numerous metals and their alloys [39,50,51] (e.g., In, [52,53] Sn, [54,55] Cu, [56] and ZnCu [57] ), metal compounds (e.g., oxides, [58][59][60][61][62] selenides, [63,64] fluorides, [65][66][67][68] CaCO 3 , [69] ZnMoO 4 , [70,71] ZHS, [72] and BaTiO 3 [73] ) and carbon materials [74][75][76][77][78] have been applied to build interphases for modulating the interfacial properties, aiming at enabling highly reversible Zn stripping/plating and inhibiting the side reactions of the HER and byproduct formation.…”