Recent Advances of Transition Metal Sulfides/Selenides Cathodes for Aqueous Zinc‐Ion Batteries

Abstract

Rechargeable aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (ZIBs) have aroused tremendous attention in energy storage system due to their high safety, eco‐friendliness, low cost, and for their good compatibility. Transition metal sulfides and selenides are considered to be promising cathodes for aqueous ZIBs owing to their unique layered structure and tunable interlayer spacing for the accelerating diffusion and reversible intercalation of hydrated Zn2+. However, their practical applications are severely impeded by some defects, such as the inferior electronic conductivity, large ion diffusion energy barrier, and bad cyclic stability. In this review, the various modification strategies including phase engineering, defect engineering, interlayer intercalation, in situ electrochemical oxidation, hybridization, doping effects, and surface modification are categorized and highlighted to improve the electrochemical properties of transition metal sulfides and selenides cathode materials, which are discussed and summarized corresponding to particular modification strategies. Finally, several key breakthrough directions such as mechanism exploration technology, electrolyte strategies, synergistic engineering, high‐capacity conversion‐type, high‐voltage cathode materials, and rocking‐chair type batteries are proposed to further push forward the development of aqueous ZIBs, to guide the design of advanced‐properties cathode materials for aqueous ZIBs.

Advanced Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries Enabled by Three-Dimensional Amorphous Vanadium Pentoxide@Graphene Microspheres

“…1−5 Nevertheless, exploiting efficient cathode materials with both eminent capacity and longest possible cycle is still one of the main constraints for the progress of AZIBs. Recently, various materials including Prussian blue analogues, 6−8 transition metal sulfide, 9,10 manganese-based oxides, 11−16 and vanadium-based oxides 17−20 have been extensively studied. Among them, vanadium pentoxide (V 2 O 5 ), as a representative of vanadium-based oxides, possesses a high theoretical capacity and low cost.…”

Dual Effects of Metal and Organic Ions Co‐Intercalation Boosting the Kinetics and Stability of Hydrated Vanadate Cathodes for Aqueous Zinc‐Ion Batteries

“…[1][2][3] In typical ZIBs energy storage systems, metallic zinc is employed as the anode, an aqueous solution containing zinc salts as the electrolyte, and a zinc ion host material as the cathode, respectively. [4] Zinc anode exhibits high theoretical capacity (820 mAh g −1 and 5855 mAh cm −3 ), low redox potential (−0.76 V vs. the standard hydrogen electrode), high stability in water, and abundant reserves. [5] The discharge capacity and cycling stability of the cathode materials are the main factors limiting the large-scale application of aqueous batteries at this stage.…”

Insight on the Energy Storage Mechanism and Kinetic Dynamic of Manganese Oxide‐Based Aqueous Zinc‐Ion Batteries

“…The smaller ionic radius of Zn 2+ than other metals (Li + −0.76 Å, Na + −1.02 Å, K + −1.38 Å) also provides the possibility for more Zn 2+ to be inserted and extracted in the cathode, which is the key step to improving the energy density. [32] As for the cathode materials, metal oxides (vanadium-based oxides, [33][34][35][36][37] manganese-based oxides [38][39][40] ), Prussian blue analogs, [41][42][43] MOFs, [44,45] COFs, [46] etc., can all be applied to owe to their electrochemical performances in neutral/weak acid electrolytes. Manganese dioxide-based materials are highly sought after because of their high theoretical specific capacity (308 mAh g −1 ≈single-electron reaction, 616 mAh g −1 ≈two-electron reaction), rich crystalline form (𝛼-, 𝛽-, 𝛾-, 𝛿-, 𝜖-, 𝜆-, R-, etc., as shown in Figure 1), environmental friendliness, low cost, and abundance of sources.…”