Journal
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Volume 10, Issue 45, Pages 38928-38935Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b14022
Keywords
aqueous battery separator; dendrite growth suppression; zinc battery; ion flux distribution; single-ion transport
Funding
- Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, US Department of Energy [DE-AR0000781]
- National Science Foundation [ECCS-1542148]
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Aqueous batteries with zinc metal anodes are promising alternatives to Li-ion batteries for grid storage because of their abundance and benefits in cost, safety, and nontoxicity. However, short cyclability due to zinc dendrite growth remains a major obstacle. Here, we report a cross-linked polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based cation exchange membrane that is low cost and mechanically robust. Li2S3 reacts with PAN, simultaneously leading to cross-linking and formation of sulfur-containing functional groups. Hydrolysis of the membrane results in the formation of a membrane that achieves preferred cation transport and homogeneous ionic flux distribution. The separator is thin (30 mu m-thick), almost 9 times stronger than hydrated Nafion, and made of low-cost materials. The membrane separator enables exceptionally long cyclability (>350 cycles) of Zn/Zn symmetric cells with low polarization and effective dendrite suppression. Our work demonstrates that the design of new separators is a fruitful pathway to enhancing the cyclability of aqueous batteries.
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