Carbon Foam-Supported VS2 Cathode for High-Performance Flexible Self-Healing Quasi-Solid-State Zinc-Ion Batteries

As the new generation of energy storage systems, the flexible battery can effectively broaden the application area and scope of energy storage devices. Flexibility and energy density are the two core evaluation parameters for the flexible battery. In this work, a flexible VS2 material (VS2@CF) is fabricated by growing the VS2 nanosheet arrays on carbon foam (CF) using a simple hydrothermal method. Benefiting from the high electric conductivity and 3D foam structure, VS2@CF shows an excellent rate capability (172.8 mAh g(-1) at 5 A g(-1)) and cycling performance (130.2 mAh g(-1) at 1 A g(-1) after 1000 cycles) when it served as cathode material for aqueous zinc-ion batteries. More importantly, the quasi-solid-state battery VS2@CF//Zn@CF assembled by the VS2@CF cathode, CF-supported Zn anode, and a self-healing gel electrolyte also exhibits excellent rate capability (261.5 and 149.8 mAh g(-1) at 0.2 and 5 A g(-1), respectively) and cycle performance with a capacity of 126.6 mAh g(-1) after 100 cycles at 1 A g(-1). Moreover, the VS2@CF//Zn@CF full cell also shows good flexible and self-healing properties, which can be charged and discharged normally under different bending angles and after being destroyed and then self-healing.

Automated summary

As a new generation of energy storage systems, flexible batteries can expand the application scope and area of energy storage devices. Flexibility and energy density are the two key evaluation parameters for flexible batteries. In this study, a flexible VS2@CF material was fabricated by growing VS2 nanosheets on carbon foam, and it showed excellent rate capability and cycling performance when used as a cathode material for aqueous zinc-ion batteries. Moreover, the assembled quasi-solid-state battery also exhibited excellent rate capability and cycle performance, and had good flexible and self-healing properties.