Self-Healing Solid Polymer Electrolyte with High Ion Conductivity and Super Stretchability for All-Solid Zinc-Ion Batteries

Abstract

The zinc-ion battery (ZIB) is a novel energy storage device, an attractive alternative to the lithium-ion battery. The frequently used aqueous electrolyte suffers from many problems such as zinc dendrites and leakage, which prompts hydrogel electrolytes and solid electrolytes as good replacements. However, hydrogel electrolytes are usually unstable, owing to water volatilization. Herein, a novel solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) utilizing coordination of zinc ions is designed and then introduced into an all-solid ZIB. Benefiting from the unique coordination structure between the polymer and zinc ions, the SPE shows outstanding flexibility, high ion conductivity, and self-healing properties. In addition, the imine bonds in the polymer allow the electrolyte to degrade in acid environments, endowing its recyclability. More importantly, solid-state ZIBs based on the polymer electrolytes exhibit an impressive cycling stability (125% capacity retention after 300 cycles) and a high coulombic efficiency (94% after 300 cycles). The results demonstrate the promising potentials of the developed SPEs that can be used in all-solid ZIBs.

Multifunctional MXene‐Bonded Transport Network Embedded in Polymer Electrolyte Enables High‐Rate and Stable Solid‐State Zinc Metal Batteries

“…To realize it, one way is to blend different kinds of monomer composition to synthesize the composite polymers with optimized performance. [16][17][18][19] For example, Zhou et al reported a high ionic conductivity composite hydrogel electrolyte composed of guar gum, sodium alginate, and ethylene glycol. [20] Besides that, the other effective method is to introduce the nanofiller into the polymer matrix, which is expected to improve the ionic conductivity.…”

Hexagonal WO3/3D Porous Graphene as a Novel Zinc Intercalation Anode for Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries

“…Up to now, most works have been dedicated to the exploration of cathode materials to improve the ZIBs performance, including manganese-based oxides, ,− vanadium-based oxides, − prussian blue analogues, polyanion compounds, , and organic compound materials . Although breakthroughs on the exploration of cathode materials for ZIBs have been achieved, the problems of Zn metal anodes including Zn dendrites, Zn corrosion/hydrogen evolution, and surface passivation, still seriously hinder the overall performance of ZIBs. ,− …”

Ultra-stretchable ion gels based on physically cross-linked polymer networks

“…The temperature dependencies of σ can be fitted with the Vogel–Tammann–Fulcher (VTF) equation. 33 where σ 0 is the ionic conductivity at infinite temperature, E a is the activation energy, and T 0 is the temperature at which molecular motion is frozen. Parameters of the VTF fitting are provided in Table S3 (ESI†).…”