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An anti-freezing and anti-drying multifunctional gel electrolyte for flexible aqueous zinc-ion batteries

基于耐低温、 保湿多功能凝胶电解质的柔性水系锌离子电池

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Abstract

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) have attracted immense attention for flexible energy storage devices due to their high safety and low cost. However, conventional flexible aqueous ZIBs will undergo severe capacity loss at subzero temperature due to the inevitably freeze of electrolytes. In addition, under large bending or stretching strains, the encapsulation of devices would be damaged, which causes the evaporation of water in electrolytes and results in device failure. Herein, an anti-freezing and anti-drying gel electrolyte based on polyacrylamide (PAM) and glycerol (Gly) is developed. The strong hydrogen-bonding interactions between PAM or Gly and water molecules not only avoid the crystallization of the gel electrolyte at low temperatures, but also constrain the free water and restrict its evaporation. Therefore, such gel electrolyte displays a high ionic conductivity of 9.65 × 10−5 S cm−1 at −40°C. Furthermore, it can restrict the dehydration process when the electrolyte is exposed to ambient environment. The flexible ZIBs based on such gel electrolyte exhibit excellent electrochemical performance at −40°C and the devices without encapsulation retain 98% of their initial capacity in ambient condition after 30 days. This work provides a route to design anti-freezing and anti-drying gel electrolytes for aqueous energy storage devices.

摘要

水系锌离子电池由于具有安全性高、 成本低的特点, 在柔性储能领域得到广泛关注. 然而, 传统柔性水系锌离子电池处于零下温度时, 由于其电解质的凝固, 电池容量会发生严重衰减. 此外, 当电池承受大幅度的形变后, 其外包装易发生破损, 造成电解质中水分的挥发, 最终导致器件失效. 在本文中, 我们开发了一种基于聚丙烯酰胺(PAM)和甘油(Gly)的耐低温、 保湿凝胶电解质. PAM和Gly与水分子之间的强氢键作用不仅抑制了凝胶电解质在低温时的凝固, 而且限制了电解质中自由水的挥发. 基于该电解质的柔性水系锌离子电池在−40°C时仍具有优良的电化学性能, 并且无封装的电池在30天后仍保持了初始容量的98%. 该工作提供了一种设计水系储能器件用耐低温、 保湿凝胶电解质的新思路.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (18JCJQJC46300 and 19JCZDJC31900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51822205 and 21875121), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2019YFA0705600 and 2017YFA0206701), the Ministry of Education of China (B12015), and the “Frontiers Science Center for New Organic Matter”, Nankai University (63181206). The authors thank Professor Zhou Z (Nankai University) for supporting Materials Studio calculations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Renewable Energy Conversion and Storage Center, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China

    Rui Wang  (王瑞), Minjie Yao  (姚敏杰), Shuo Huang  (黄朔), Jinlei Tian  (田金磊) & Zhiqiang Niu  (牛志强)

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  1. Rui Wang  (王瑞)
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  2. Minjie Yao  (姚敏杰)
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  3. Shuo Huang  (黄朔)
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  4. Jinlei Tian  (田金磊)
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Contributions

Author contributions Wang R performed the experiments and wrote the original manuscript; Yao M contributed to the electrochemical measurements and revised the manuscript; Huang S and Tian J contributed to the synthesis of electrolytes; Niu Z proposed the concept, supervised the experiments and revised the manuscript. All authors contributed to the general discussion.

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Correspondence to Zhiqiang Niu  (牛志强).

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Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Supplementary information Supporting data are available in the online version of the paper.

Rui Wang received his BS degree in chemistry from Nankai University in 2018. He then joined the Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry at Nankai University under the supervision of Prof. Zhiqiang Niu. His research focuses on the design of smart electrolytes for energy storage devices.

Zhiqiang Niu is a professor at the College of Chemistry, Nankai University. He received his PhD degree from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2010. After his postdoctoral research at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), he started his independent research career at Nankai University in 2014. His research interests focus on the unconventional energy storage devices from electrode materials to device configurations.

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Wang, R., Yao, M., Huang, S. et al. An anti-freezing and anti-drying multifunctional gel electrolyte for flexible aqueous zinc-ion batteries. Sci. China Mater. 65, 2189–2196 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-021-1924-2

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