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Zou P, Lin R, Pollard TP, Yao L, Hu E, Zhang R, He Y, Wang C, West WC, Ma L, Borodin O, Xu K, Yang XQ, Xin HL. Localized Hydrophobicity in Aqueous Zinc Electrolytes Improves Zinc Metal Reversibility. Nano Lett 2022; 22:7535-7544. [PMID: 36070490 DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c02514] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The rechargeability of aqueous zinc metal batteries is plagued by parasitic reactions of the zinc metal anode and detrimental morphologies such as dendritic or dead zinc. To improve the zinc metal reversibility, hereby we report a new solution structure of aqueous electrolyte with hydroxyl-ion scavengers and hydrophobicity localized in solvent clusters. We show that although hydrophobicity sounds counterintuitive for an aqueous system, hydrophilic pockets may be encapsulated inside a hydrophobic outer layer, and a hydrophobic anode-electrolyte interface can be generated through the addition of a cation-philic, strongly anion-phobic, and OH--reactive diluent. The localized hydrophobicity enables less active water and less absorbed water on the Zn anode surface, which suppresses the parasitic water reduction; while the hydroxyl-ion-scavenging functionality further minimizes undesired passivation layer formation, thus leading to superior reversibility (an average Zn plating/stripping efficiency of 99.72% for 1000 cycles) and lifetime (80.6% capacity retention after 5000 cycles) of zinc batteries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peichao Zou
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, United States
| | - Ruoqian Lin
- Chemistry Division, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, United States
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109, United States
| | - Travis P Pollard
- Battery Science Branch, Energy Science Division, Army Research Directorate, U.S. CCDC Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, Maryland 20783, United States
| | - Libing Yao
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, United States
| | - Enyuan Hu
- Chemistry Division, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, United States
| | - Rui Zhang
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, United States
| | - Yubin He
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, United States
| | - Chunyang Wang
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, United States
| | - William C West
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109, United States
| | - Lu Ma
- National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, United States
| | - Oleg Borodin
- Battery Science Branch, Energy Science Division, Army Research Directorate, U.S. CCDC Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, Maryland 20783, United States
| | - Kang Xu
- Battery Science Branch, Energy Science Division, Army Research Directorate, U.S. CCDC Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, Maryland 20783, United States
| | - Xiao-Qing Yang
- Chemistry Division, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, United States
| | - Huolin L Xin
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, United States
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