iScience (Apr 2020)

Revealing the Impact of Oxygen Dissolved in Electrolytes on Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries

  • Lijun Su,
  • Lingyang Liu,
  • Bao Liu,
  • Jianing Meng,
  • Xingbin Yan

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 23, no. 4

Abstract

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Summary: Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) are promising low-cost and high-safety energy storage devices. However, their capacity decay especially at the initial cyclic stage is a serious issue. Herein, we reveal that the dissolved oxygen in aqueous electrolyte has significant impact on the electrochemistry of Zn anode and ZIBs. After removing oxygen, the symmetrical set-up of Zn/Zn is capable of reversible plating/stripping with a 20-fold lifetime enhancement compared with that in oxygen enrichment condition. Taking aqueous Zn-MnO2 battery as an example, although the presence of oxygen can contribute an extra capacity over 20% at the initial cycles due to the electrocatalytic activity of MnO2 with oxygen, the corrosion of Zn anode can be eliminated in the oxygen-free circumstance and thus offering a better reversible energy storage system. The impact of the dissolved oxygen on the cycling stability also exists in other ZIBs using vanadium-based compounds, Birnessite and Prussian blue analog cathodes. : Electrochemical Energy Storage; Energy Storage; Materials Characterization Subject Areas: Electrochemical Energy Storage, Energy Storage, Materials Characterization