Highly stable and low-temperature-tolerant zinc ion storage enabled by carbitol electrolyte additive engineering

Aqueous zinc (Zn)-ion energy storage system is widely regarded as a promising candidate for future elec-trochemical energy storage applications but suffers insufficient lifespan and limited operating tempera-ture. To address these issues, we introduce a carbitol additive for a novel hybrid electrolyte to enhance cycling stability and temperature adaptability by optimizing the coordination structure of Zn ion. The modified electrolyte not only restrains the hydrogen evolution, but also promotes a high-orientation Zn deposition and significantly limits the Zn dendrite growth. Taking advantage of improved electrolyte properties, the Zn symmetric cells with 10 % carbitol-modified electrolyte exhibit long-term cycle stabil-ity for 5000 h at 25 degrees C, and 400 h at-10 degrees C. More notably, the carbitol-modified electrolyte endows a stable reversible capacitance for Zn ion hybrid supercapacitors to be operated at different temperatures. Our work affords a reasonable electrolyte engineering strategy to fabricate a highly stable and low -temperature-tolerant Zn ion storage system.(c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Carbitol additive is introduced to enhance cycling stability and temperature adaptability of aqueous zinc-ion energy storage system by optimizing the coordination structure of zinc ion. The modified electrolyte restrains hydrogen evolution, promotes high-orientation zinc deposition, and limits zinc dendrite growth, leading to long-term cycle stability and stable reversible capacitance for zinc-ion hybrid supercapacitors at different temperatures.