Fabrication of Zinc Anodes for Aqueous Lithium-Ion Batteries by Supersonic Cold Spraying

Supersonic cold spraying technique is successfully employed for the first time to fabricate the zinc anode of an electrochemical energy storage system. The anode demonstrates 40% higher surface area than that of a zinc plate. The supersonic sprayed zinc anode in an aqueous lithium-ion battery shows significant improvement in initial discharge capacity (149.3 mAhg(-1)), cycle life (90% retention after 100 cycles at 1 C), rate performance and open circuit potential. Higher surface area and suppression of dendritic growth of the zinc anode are proposed to be responsible for the improved performance. The fabrication technique is fully scalable from small battery systems (1.15 mAh) to large ones (7mAh), indicating the potential for large-scale manufacturing processes.