Enabling Stable Zn Anode via a Facile Alloying Strategy and 3D Foam Structure

Abstract

Aqueous zinc‐ion battery (AZIB) has become a promising candidate in grid energy storage due to its low cost, environmental friendliness, and high safety. However, AZIB usually suffers from uncontrollable zinc deposition and dendrite growth as well as hydrogen evolution and passivation on the surface of zinc anode. To address the above issues, a unique 3D Zn alloy foam anode built from Zn–Sn–Pb alloy in 3D Cu foam is constructed by a facile hot dipping method. The proposed 3D Zn alloy anode, through introducing elements Sn and Pb, enhances the hydrogen evolution overpotential, reduces the corrosion current, greatly mitigates the self‐corrosion in the electrolyte, and efficiently inhibits the growth of Zn dendrite during cycling. Importantly, such Zn alloy engineering together with a 3D Cu foam current collector enables highly stable Zn storage properties. The full cell assembled using the proposed 3D Zn alloy anode and MnO2 nanosheet cathode exhibits superior reversible capacity (103.4 mAh g−1) and excellent cycling stability (capacity retention of 87% over 4000 cycles) at 1.8 A g−1.

Towards Understanding the Corrosion Behavior of Zinc‐Metal Anode in Aqueous Systems: From Fundamentals to Strategies

“…The design of different types of zinc alloys has become a proven strategy to inhibit HER and zinc corrosion. [50,[103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111] Compared to pure zinc, the formation of intermetallic phases leads to higher chemical bonding strength between phases, denser arrangement of atoms and lower Gibbs free energy (Figure 13). It increases the hydrogen precipitation overpotential and causes a positive shift in corrosion potential with a decrease in corrosion current density.…”

“…The design of different types of zinc alloys has become a proven strategy to inhibit HER and zinc corrosion [50,103–111] . Compared to pure zinc, the formation of intermetallic phases leads to higher chemical bonding strength between phases, denser arrangement of atoms and lower Gibbs free energy (Figure 13).…”

Stable Zinc Anodes Enabled by Zincophilic Cu Nanowire Networks

“…However, many of the current strategies mainly focus on modulating one of the above steps to stabilize zinc anodes. For instance, porous inorganic coating on zinc anodes can guide Zn 2+ flux [ 32 ], but hardly induces zinc nucleation; using Cu plates/foams as current collectors can reduce nucleation barriers of zinc deposition [ 26 ], but cannot effectively reduce the local current density due to their limited specific surface area [ 42 , 43 ]. In theory, a comprehensive strategy that can positively affect both Zn 2+ /electron concentration distribution and zinc nucleation is expected to endow zinc anodes with better electrochemical performance.…”

Zinc Anode for Mild Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries: Challenges, Strategies, and Perspectives

“…Zn can be fused with various elements to form Zn-based alloys, classified into binary alloys, ternary alloys, and multi-element alloys according to the number of their components. In addition to Ga–In–Zn [ 116 , 117 ] and Zn–Sn–Pb [ 118 ] alloys, the Zn alloys currently reported on mild aqueous Zn anodes are mainly binary alloys, such as Cu–Zn [ 89 , 119 , 120 ], Ag–Zn [ 89 , 121 – 123 ], Zn–Al [ 124 ], Zn–Mn [ 125 ], Zn–Sb [ 115 ], and Zn-P [ 69 ]. The interaction between alloy components will form an alloy phase with a specific structure and composition, which can be divided into solid solution and intermetallic compound [ 126 ].…”