Wearable Antifreezing Fiber-Shaped Zn/PANI Batteries with Suppressed Zn Dendrites and Operation in Sweat Electrolytes

Fiber-shaped Zn batteries are promising candidates for wearable electronics owing to their high energy and low cost, but further studies are still required to address the issues related to detrimental Zn dendrite growth and limited low-temperature performances. Here, we report an antifreeze, long-life, and dendrite-free fiber-shaped Zn battery using both nanoporous Zn and polyaniline (PANI) electrodeposited on carbon nanofibers (CFs) as the cathode and anode, respectively. The fiber-shaped Zn anode achieves stable plating/stripping for 1000 mAh cm(-2) accumulative capacity with low polarization (30 mV) at a current density of 2 mA cm(-2). The dendrite-free Zn electrodes also enable the stable cycling of the fiber battery with 75.1% capacity retention after 1000 cycles. With an antifreeze agent added in the gel electrolyte, the fiber battery maintains excellent performance at temperatures as low as -30 degrees C. Lastly, by utilizing the doping/dedoping mechanism of Cl- in the PANI electrode, we achieve, for the first time, a Zn battery using human sweat as a harmless electrolyte. Our work provides a long-life and antifreeze fiber-shaped battery that is highly promising for future wearable energy storage devices.

Automated summary

A study introduced an antifreeze, long-life, and dendrite-free fiber-shaped Zn battery that utilizes nanoporous Zn and polyaniline deposited on carbon nanofibers, achieving stable capacity and cycling performance, and maintaining excellent performance even at low temperatures with the addition of an antifreeze agent.