Zinc deposition characteristics on different substrates for aqueous zinc ion battery

The formation of dendrites during the repeated plating and stripping is the main reason that hinders practical application of zinc metal anode. Different substrates show different deposition behaviors for zinc deposition, which indicates that zinc deposition is closely related to the interface of substrate. Herein, several representative substrates (Cu, Sn, Ag, Ti, Ni, Pb, Al, stainless steel and carbon cloth) were selected to systematic investigate the deposition characteristics of zinc on different substrates. The results show that the Cu substrate exhibits the best performance compared with other substrates. The half cell with Cu as substrate still maintains high Coulombic efficiency of 99.9% after 8000 cycles at high current density of 20 mA cm-2. Combined with DFT calculation, it is found that too low binding energy of substrate to zinc cannot induce zinc plating, and too strong binding energy is not conducive to the process of stripping. During zinc deposition, the substrate in situ forms an alloy phase with zinc from XRD and XPS analysis. Therefore, investigation on the influence of different substrates on zinc deposition and understanding the factors affecting zinc deposition have a good guiding significance for the modification of the electrode interface.

Automated summary

The formation of dendrites during the repeated plating and stripping process is the main obstacle to the practical application of zinc metal anode. Different substrates exhibit different deposition behaviors for zinc deposition, with copper (Cu) substrate showing the best performance. Investigation on the influence of different substrates on zinc deposition and understanding the factors affecting zinc deposition have significant guiding significance for electrode interface modification.