Designing Soft Solid-like Viscoelastic Zinc Powder Anode toward High-Performance Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries

Zn powder is considered as a potential Zn metal anode for aqueous Zn-ion batteries. However, restricted ion/electron transfer and volume effect-caused electrical contact failure in conventional polymer binder composited Zn powder anodes deteriorate their electrochemical performance. Here, a high-performance soft solid-like viscoelastic Zn powder composite anode is proposed based on an oligomer gluing strategy. Benefiting from the viscoelastic properties, the soft-solid Zn powder composite (ss-ZnP) anode has significantly enhanced charge transfer, alleviated volume effect, and homogenized interfacial electric field, leading to fast plating/stripping kinetics and dendrite-free deposition morphology. Furthermore, the assembled NH4V4O10||ss-ZnP full cell delivers higher capacity (510 mAh g-1 at 0.1A g-1, 300 mAh g-1 at 1A g-1) and longer lifespan up to 500 cycles at 1 A g-1, superior to conventional polymer binder composited Zn powder anode and other reported rheological Zn powder-based anodes. Apart from the electrochemical merits, this soft matter-based design also endows the ss-ZnP electrode with free-standing and malleable properties which greatly expand its practical application. A soft solid-like viscoelastic Zn powder composite (ss-ZnP) anode based on a rheological oligomer (E-44) gluing strategy is proposed. The ss-ZnP anode shows enhanced ion/electron transport and alleviated volume effect, leading to excellent electrochemical performance in the Zn-ion batteries. Furthermore, the excellent malleability of ss-ZnP greatly facilitates the assembly of various types of batteries.image

Automated summary

In this study, a soft solid-like viscoelastic Zn powder composite (ss-ZnP) anode based on a rheological oligomer (E-44) gluing strategy is proposed. The ss-ZnP anode exhibits enhanced ion/electron transport and alleviated volume effect, leading to excellent electrochemical performance in Zn-ion batteries. Furthermore, the excellent malleability of ss-ZnP greatly facilitates the assembly of various types of batteries.