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Dynamic reconstruction of Ni-Zn alloy solid-electrolyte interface for highly stable Zn anode

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Abstract

Aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) are ideal candidates for large-scale battery storage, with a high theoretical specific capacity, ecological friendliness, and extremely low cost but are strongly hindered by zinc dendrite growth. Herein, Ni-Zn alloy is artificially constructed as a solid-electrolyte interface (SEI) for Zn anodes by electrodeposition and annealing. The Ni-Zn alloy layer acts as a dynamic shield at the electrode/electrolyte interface. Interestingly, the zinc atoms migrate out of the electrode body during zinc stripping while merging into the electrode body during the plating. In this way, the Ni-Zn alloy is able to guide the zinc deposition in the horizontal direction, thereby suppressing the formation of dendrite. Benefiting from those, the Ni-Zn alloy symmetric cell shows a greatly improved cycle life and is able to operate stably for 1,900 h at a current density of 0.5 mA·cm−2. The present study is a strategy for negative electrode protection of AZIBs.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2020YFA0715000), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52127816 and 22109123), Foshan Xianhu Laboratory of the Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory (No. XHT2020-003), and the Sanya Science and Educa tion Innovation Park of Wuhan University of Technology (Nos. 2020KF0022 and 2021KF0020).

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  1. Qian Zhang, Yuhang Dai, and Kangning Zhao contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Qian Zhang, Yuhang Dai, Kangning Zhao, Chengyi Zhang, Ruihu Lu, Jinghao Li, Shuhan Jin, Lei Zhang, Qinyou An & Liqiang Mai

  2. Department of Physical Science and Technology, School of Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Lei Zhang

  3. Hainan Institute, Wuhan University of Technology, Hainan, 572000, China

    Lei Zhang & Liqiang Mai

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  1. Qian Zhang
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Correspondence to Lei Zhang or Liqiang Mai.

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Zhang, Q., Dai, Y., Zhao, K. et al. Dynamic reconstruction of Ni-Zn alloy solid-electrolyte interface for highly stable Zn anode. Nano Res. 16, 11604–11611 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5157-x

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