Academic News: Professor Zhang Ning’s Research Group from the College of Chemistry and Materials Science Publishes Significant Research Results in Rechargeable Aqueous Zinc Battery Field in “Advanced Materials”
July 19, 202
Recently, Professor Zhang Ning’s research group from the College of Chemistry and Materials Science has made important progress in the field of rechargeable aqueous zinc (Zn) batteries. Their work, titled “Organic Cations Texture Zinc Metal Anodes for Deep Cycling Aqueous Zinc Batteries”, was published in the top international journal “Advanced Materials” (2024, 202408287, IF = 27.4), with Hebei University as the sole corresponding unit. Our doctoral students Ma Guoqiang and Yuan Wentao are co-first authors of the paper, with Professor Zhang Ning as the sole corresponding author.
Rechargeable aqueous Zn batteries are known for their high safety, rich resources, and environmental friendliness, holding vast application prospects in the field of large-scale energy storage. However, conventional Zn anodes predominantly exhibit (101) crystal plane texture, leading to issues such as dendritic growth, hydrogen evolution, corrosion, and low reversibility, severely hindering the commercialization of aqueous Zn batteries. Zn (002) crystal plane, as a hexagonal close-packed metal structure, possesses the lowest surface energy and the highest hydrogen evolution barrier, effectively suppressing electrode interfacial side reactions. Therefore, exploring effective methods to regulate the texture of Zn anode crystal planes and realizing the controllable preparation of new (002)-textured Zn are of significant importance for constructing high-performance aqueous Zn batteries.
In this work, Professor Zhang Ning’s research group proposed a strategy of “organic cations texture zinc metal anodes”, achieving the controllable electrodeposition of highly (002) textured Zn metal ((002)-Zn) by introducing organic cation additives into the aqueous electrolyte to regulate Zn deposition orientation. This strategy, with a certain universality, is applicable to various organic cation additives, including: 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium cation (Bmim+), 1-propyl-3-methylimidazolium cation (Pmim+), and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium cation (Emim+). Through experimental characterization and theoretical calculations, the research group revealed that organic cation additives exhibit a dynamic adsorption effect on the Zn surface, guiding Zn-ion orientation deposition and suppressing water-induced interfacial side reactions, effectively maintaining the crystal plane orientation of (002)-Zn during charge and discharge processes. The prepared (002)-Zn electrode showed excellent electrochemical performance in Bmim+-containing electrolyte, with a stable cycling ability over 1500 hours with 36.3% depth-of-discharge, and even a cycling ability over 350 hours with 72.6% depth-of-discharge, which is 87.5 times the cycling life of the commercial Zn anode. Based on the above, high-performance pouch full cells based on (002)-Zn anode were developed, demonstrating promising application prospects.
Since 2023, Professor Zhang Ning’s research group has achieved a series of significant results in the field of rechargeable aqueous zinc batteries, with relevant works published in prestigious international academic journals such as Angewandte Chemie-International Edition (2 papers; 2023, 62, e202218386 and 2023, 62, e202304444; IF = 16.1), Advanced Functional Materials (2 papers; 2024, DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202406620 and 2024, 34, 2313358; IF = 18.5), ACS Nano (2023, 17, 23861-23871; IF = 15.8), and Energy Storage Materials (2023, 54, 276-283; IF = 18.9). These works have received funding and support from the Institute of Life Sciences and Green Development of Hebei University, the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by CAST, and the General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Links to the papers:
[1]https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202408287
[2]https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202218386
[3]https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202304444
[4]https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202406620
[5]https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202313358
[6]https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.3c08095
[7]https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ensm.2022.10.043
